Secondary ion mass spectrometric determination of impurities in aluminium oxide

Abstract

Impurities in aluminium oxide (alumina) were determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), which enabled the sample powder to be analysed without time-consuming pre-treatment stages. The difficulty of acquisition of standard samples associated with quantitative SIMS was overcome by preparing chemically the standard samples in powder form and applying the calibration graph method. The four elements (Ca, Fe, Ga and Ti) in an alumina reference material and commercial alumina samples were determined successfully and the results agreed well with those of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The procedures are described and experimental results presented.