Zircon is a mineral used in a wide range of industrial products, including refractory materials, ceramics, and enamelware, as well as electronic, functional, and structural ceramics, which are fundamental materials used in the electronics, aerospace, aviation, and nuclear industries. These applications require high-purity zircon, as the presence of impurities affects the characteristics of the end products.
However, two major challenges must be overcome when analyzing zircon: sample preparation and the extremely wide range of analyte concentrations. This work describes the sample preparation and analysis of both trace and matrix elements in zircon using the Avio® 550 Max ICP-OES. The fully simultaneous nature of the Avio 550 Max, combined with its wide dynamic range and Universal Data Acquisition for interference removal, results in accurate and robust analyses. This methodology can be used to expand the simultaneous determination of elements present at both high and low concentrations in ore samples.