The determination of the precious metals by flameless atomic-absorption spectrophotometry

The optimum conditions for the determination of palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium by carbon rod atomic-absorption spectrophotometry are described and data for sensitivity, detection limit and reproducibility are given. With the exception of osmium the sensitivity and detection limits are such that the working range of the atomic-absorption technique can be extended downwards by an order of magnitude or more when compared with that with an air-acetylene flame.The effect of mutual interference is investigated and methods of reducing it are proposed.