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.