Rapid determination of trace amounts of impurity metals in a Y-1 solution by graphite-furnace AAS using ascorbic acid as a matrix modifier

A ferroelectric material, Y-1, is made from a mixture (Y-1 solution) of Sr, Ta and Bi organic solvents. To determine impurity metals in this Y-1 solution, we required a pretreatment of wet digestion or dry ashing. Therefore, there was a possibility that impurity metals from the analytical environment and the digestion container might contaminate the Y-1 solution. In this work, we studied a method for the rapid determination of impurity metals (Al, K, Cr, Fe, Ni, Zn and Pb) in the Y-1 solution without using any pretreatment. Here, we used the calibration-curve method on GFAAS after diluting the Y-1 solution 1000 times by butyl acetate. However, the measurement on GFAAS was interfered by the matrix elements (Sr, Ta and Bi) in the Y-1 solution because their amount was 10(6) times that of the impurity metals. As a result of various examinations, it was found that ascorbic acid as a matrix modifier could prevent the matrix elements from interfering. The detection limits (3 sigma) of Al, K, Cr, Fe, Ni, Zn and Pb in the Y-1 solution were 25, 2, 6, 36, 9, 4 and 9 ng ml(-1), respectively. We confirmed that the simple and rapid method could be used for determining impuriy metals in the Y-1 solution.