Optimisation of parameters for spectroscopic analysis of rare earth elements in sediment samples

Abstract

The rapid demand for rare earth elements (REEs) in recent years due to increased use in various technological applications, agriculture, etc. has led to increased pollution and prevalence of REEs in the environment. Therefore, monitoring for REEs in the aquatic environment has become essential including the risk assessment to aquatic organisms. Since direct determination of REEs in sediment samples prove difficult at times, due to low concentrations available and complex matric effects, separation and enrichment steps are sometimes used. In this work, various REEs were determined employing wet acid digestion and lithium metaborate fusion in our optimised analytical technique. A comparison of the two analytical techniques was also made. The results obtained from the optimised ICP-OES radial view technique were in 5% agreement with the ICP-MS results from the same samples. The accuracy of the method was checked with the geological reference material GRE-03 and found to be in reasonable agreement. We demonstrated that there is a consistent relationship between the signals of the REEs and nebuliser gas flow rates, plasma power and pump speed. The detection limits for all the REEs ranged from 0.06 mg L-1 Yb to 2.5 mg L-1 Sm using the ICP-OES fusion technique.