EVALUATION OF THE ANALYTICAL PERFORMANCE OF INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF MAJOR AND MINOR ELEMENTS IN BASIC SLAGS

The application of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to the analysis of basic slags has been studied. A conventional dissolution-fusion procedure and a microwave digestion system were used for sample dissolution. Suitable selection of the analyte isotopes and the use of appropriate instrument settings and of internal standardization makes it possible to determine the major and minor elements in the same test sample dilution. Use of the omni-range device and low-abundance isotopes for the determination of the major elements is evaluated. The influence of the attack reagents is tested and the interferences caused by polyatomic ions are studied and corrected by applying elementary mathematical equations. For the major and minor elements considered, precision was found to be better than 1% (RSD). Results are presented for three basic slag reference materials and the agreement between the certified and found values shows the capacity of the method accurately to determine elemental concentrations in basic slags.