DETERMINATION OF GERMANIUM, PALLADIUM AND PLATINUM IN HIGHLY CONCENTRATED-SOLUTIONS OF PHOSPHORIC-ACID AND AMMONIUM-NITRATE BY FLOW-INJECTION INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS-SPECTROMETRY (FI-ICP-MS)

Trace element concentrations of germanium, palladium and platinum in a solution containing 2.5 M (25% m:v) phosphoric acid and 1.5 M (12% m:v) ammonium nitrate have been determined by flow injection-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (FI-ICP-MS) using an internal standard and a standard addition method. By choosing a suitable sampler and skimmer set to eliminate interferences by related species, each element could be determined by two different isotopes: Ge-72, Ge-74, Pd-105, Pd-108, Pt-194 and Pt-195. The detection limits of the isotopes used are equal to 1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.3 ng/ml respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for all isotopes is less than 10% for concentrations above 20 ng/ml. The method used provided an efficient matrix correction and stable operating conditions for the ICP-MS.