Determination of yttrium and lanthanum in zirconium dioxide by HPLC, X-ray fluorescence and neutron activation analyses

Summary Lanthania-and yttria-stabilized zirconium oxide ceramics have been examined using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), thermal neutron activation (NA) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyses and thus determine the stabilizer content. Ceramic powders with the composition ZrO₂:x mol % La₂O₃ (x=5, 10, 15, 20 and 33) and ZrO₂:x mol % Y₂O₃ (x=10, 15, 20 and 25) were prepared by the citrate and the co-precipitation techniques, respectively. The lanthanum content was determined by HPLC (x=5.09, 9.78, 14.98, 19.81 and 25.94) and NA (x=5.15, 10.32, 17.25, 21.08 and 27.97) analyses, the yttrium content by HPLC (x=8.5, 13.5, 17.9 and 22.1) and XRF (x=9.9, 15.8, 20.1 and 24.9) analyses. An experimental sequence, based on continuous dilution of ceramic powder solutions, is proposed for preparing samples for HPLC measurements. A swimming pool nuclear reactor is used for NA analysis. The quantitative determinations of yttrium and lanthanum doping levels obtained using those techniques are described.