Determination of zinc in laterite nickel ore by flame atomic absorption spectrometry

The laterite nickel ore was dissolved with hydrochloric acid,nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid.The perchloric acid was added to remove silicon and fluorine by smoking.In diluted hydrochloric acid medium,the content of zinc was determined on atomic absorption spectrometer at 213.9 nm using air-ethyne flame.The optimal working conditions of zinc were studied by orthogonal test.The effect of sample preparation method,acid medium and coexisting elements was discussed.Beer's law was obeyed for zinc in the range of 0-1.0 μg/mL under optimized experimental conditions.The detection limit was 0.002 4 μg/mL.The proposed method was applied to the determination of zinc in synthesized laterite nickel ore sample.The relative standard deviations(RSD,n=11) were less than 2.3 %.The determination results were consistent with the theoretical values.This method was applicable for the determination of laterite nickel ore with zinc content of 0.01 %-1.0 %.