Determination of trace tin in steel by hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry

A new method for determination of trace tin in the steel by hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry(HG-AFS) was investigated.The conditions of instrument and hydride generation were optimized.The major element matching method was used to study the interferences of familiar coexisting elements in steel.Besides,the effect of different masking reagents was discussed.The results indicated that tartaric acid had better masking effect on the interferences of the substrate element Fe and coexisting elements V,Cr,Si,Mn.The EDTA could eliminate the influences of large amounts of W and Mo,and the interference from Cu could be masked by the thiourea and EDTA.Under optimal experimental conditions,a good linearity was achieved for tin concentration range between 0 and 80 ng/mL.The detection limit of tin is 0.108 4 ng/mL and the relative standard deviation for 20 ng/mL tin is 1.82 %(n=11).The method has been applied to the determination of trace tin in the standard reference steel sample and the result was in agreement with the certified value.The recoveries of general steel are ranged from 94% to 108 %.