Hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry for the quantification of germanium in iron meteorites

A simple and inexpensive hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometric procedure was developed for the quantification of germanium in iron meteorites. The final procedure involved dissolving the meteorite in nitric acid, dilution with water, addition of citrate to buffer the solution and complex the iron and liberation of germanium hydride with sodium tetrahydroborate. The hydride was collected in a liquid air trap and fed into a nitrogen-hydrogen-air-entrained flame. The limit of detection (2σ) was 0.03 μg g^?1 in the original meteorite and the r.s.d, was 3.9% for ten replicate analyses of the Toluca meteorite. The germanium content of this meteorite was 246 αg^?1, the same as that obtained by neutron activation analyses (NAA). Analyses of nine iron meteorites afforded values in agreement with those previously obtained by NAA.