With the development of high-purity rare earth element (REE) products in many industrial fields such as the semiconductor, high-temperature superconductor and optoelectronics, the demand for purity analysis of REE products is increasing. As a result, it is critically important to be able to accurately determine trace levels of REE impurities in high-purity REE products.
The purity of the gadolinium metal should be very high, and therefore, the ability to detect trace impurities is vitally important. Due to the low concentrations that must be measured, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has long been valued as the technique of choice for analyzing impurities in high-purity rare earth oxides. However, analysis by ICP-MS can be challenging due to polyatomic spectral interferences from matrix elements.
This work demonstrates the ability of the NexION® 1100 ICP-MS to directly and effectively measure 13 trace REE elements in 500 ppm gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) solution, thanks to the capability of its quadrupole Universal Cell to control the reaction to ensure that no new interferences are formed. Its robust instrumental design allows the analysis of concentrated and challenging matrices, such as high-purity rare earth oxides.