Preconcentration of lanthanum, europium and ytterbium with tribromoarsenazo-cetylpyridinium bromide supported on microcrystalline naphthalene and their determinations by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

A sensitive and rapid method for the determination of lanthanum, europium and ytterbium by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) after solid-liquid extraction with microcrystalline naphthalene was developed. Analytes could be quantitatively adsorbed on tribromoarsenazo-cetylpyridinium bromide-naphthalene (TBA-CPB-naphthalene) packed in a column and determined by ICP-AES after desorption with 3 mol l(-1) HCL The effect of various experimental parameters, such as pH, reagent amounts, naphthalene concentrations and diverse ions, on the determination of interesting elements were investigated in detail. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the detection limits of this method for La3+, Eu3+ and Yb3+ were 1.3-8.6 ng ml(-1), and the relative standard deviations obtained for nine replicate determinations at a concentration of 0.5 mug ml(-1) were 1.4-2.2%. The proposed method has been applied in the analysis of NIES CRM No. 8 vehicle exhaust particulates and GBW 07602 GSV-1 bush branches and leaves for La, Eu and Yb, and La in NIST SRM 1752 citrus leaves samples; the analytical results were in good agreement with reference values. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.