Correction of mineral acid interferences in inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry on copper and manganese using internal standardization

Abstract

A study has been made of mineral acid matrix interferences in trace element determinations by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. It has been shown that signal suppressions of up to 40% can be observed under normal operating conditions. The interferences can largely be compensated for by using an internal standardization procedure. Precision is also improved several fold when scandium is used as a real-time internal standard. This is attributed to the reduction of noise by simultaneous measurement of emission signals.