Determination of scandium in aluminum alloy by ICP-AES

A method of determination of Sc in aluminum alloy by ICP-AES was reported in this paper. The spectral interferences deriving from more than forty foreign elements, i.e. Al, As, Au, B, Be, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Dy, Er, Fe, Ga, Gd, Hf, Ho, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Nd, Ni, P, Pb, Pd, Pr, Pt, Sb, Si, Sm, Sn, Sr, Ta, Tb, Ti, Tm, V, W, Y, Zn and Zr in the determination of scandium were investigated. The solution concentrations of the studied elements ranged from 0.01 mg.mL(-1) to 1.0 mg.mL(-1). The optimum analytical spectral line of Sc was also selected according to the spectral interferences investigated and the elements, which existed in Al alloys , and their contents. The aluminum alloys were dissolved by acids or by NaOH resolution. The respective detection limits of the two dissolving methods were determined. The recovery tests were carried out by adding diverse contents of Sc to different types of Al alloys. The recovery rates were in the range of 98%-100.3% and the relative standard deviations were less than 2.3%. This method is accurate, rapid and convenient to determine Sc , whose content ranges from 0.01% to 0.50% in Al alloys.