Direct Spectrochemical Determination of Some Rare Earth Elements in Uranium

Abstract A spectrochemical analysis of uranium for samarium and europium, without prior separation is presented. The method is based on excitation of uranium in the chloride form with potassium chloride as buffer and by use of 4A DC‐arc excitation. Under these conditions it is possible to overcome the difficulties arising from the complex spectrum and heavy background of uranium. The limits of detection for europium and samarium are 5 and 20 ppm, respectively; the coefficient of variation for Eu and Sm is about 25% for a single determination. The visually established limit of detection for gadolinium and dysprosium is 50 ppm.