Spectral interferences in the determination of traces of scandium, yttrium and rare earth elements in “pure” rare earth matrices by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Part IV. Lutetium and yttrium

This article is an electronic publication in Spectrochimica Acta Electronica (SAE), a section of Spectrochimica Acta Part B (SAB). The hardcopy text is accompanied by an electronic archive, stored on the SAE homepage at http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/sabe. The archive contains data files and text files. The present article is the fourth part of a series of papers discussing the spectral interferences of rare earth elements (REEs) in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The spectral interferences for 200-pm wide windows centred (±100 pm) around the prominent lines of the analytes, due to matrix lines and oxide radicals (LuO or YO) that emit band spectra depending on the excitation temperature (T_exc.) in ICP were investigated. The main result is that for T_exc.=7200 K, LuO and YO band components can be eliminated so that prominent analysis lines of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Eu and Sm were observed on a smooth background. T_exc..=7200 K was chosen as the optimal excitation temperature in the determination of traces of REEs in Lu₂O₃ and Y₂O₃, respectively. The quantification of the interferences in terms of Q-value was used in accordance with Boumans and Vrakking Spectrochimica Acta Part B 42 (1987) 819; 43 (1188) 69]. The “best” analysis lines are free of line interferences and negligibly influenced by wing interferences and Lu₂O₃ and Y₂O₃ as matrices do not raise the real detection limits.