Systematic investigation of aluminium interferences on the alkaline earth elements in flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Part I. Behaviour of beryllium

Abstract

The flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination of Be using a dinitrogen oxide–acetylene flame in the presence of Al suffers interference from the latter at 10 mg dm^–3. To remove this interference the absorbance of typical test solutions containing 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg dm^–3 of Be and increasing Al concentrations with a Be:Al mass ratio up to 1:4000 was systematically examined together with specific reagents that form stable compounds selectively with Al in the flame. Excess additions of KF, LaCl₃, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and quinolin-8-ol showed that quinolin-8-ol is the most effective agent to compensate for the Al interference, thereby releasing Be for AAS.