ANALYSIS OF TRACE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS IN MISCH METAL BY MEANS OF ITP-PIXE METHOD

A misch metal, an alloy of light rare earth elements, was analyzed by a new coupled analytical method, ITP-PIXE(isotachophoresis—Particle Induced X-ray Emission) : The sample solution containing ca.1 mg misch metal was separated and fractionated by the use of a preparative isotacho-phoretic analyzer. The dropwise fractions containing nanomole rare earth elements were analyzed off-line by PIXE. The matrix effect in X-ray measurement was reduced by the isotachophoretic removing of the dominant lanthanoids and preconcentration of the trace elements of interest. Consequently the minor elements, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Yb and Y could be determined accurately. The most trace element found was Yb (4ppm, 4ng in 1mg sample). The good accuracy of ITP-PIXE method was also demonstrated for several model samples of lanthanoids, where La was the dominant element and the thirteen lanthanoids were the minor elements. The ratio was varied from 500:1 to 50000:1. Even in the case of 50000:1, ca. 10% accuracy was achieved for each minor element except for Sm(23%), Gd(17%) and Yb(18%). The analytical results by ITP-PIXE were compared with those by means of ICP-AES(Inductively Coupled Plasma—Atomic Emission Spectrometry).