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Precise Determination of Ultra‐Low (sub‐ng g ‐1 ) Level Rare Earth Elements in Ultramafic Rocks by Quadrupole ICP‐MS
Author(s) -
Nakamura Kentaro,
Chang Qing
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geostandards and geoanalytical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.037
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1751-908X
pISSN - 1639-4488
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-908x.2007.00859.x
Subject(s) - peridotite , ultramafic rock , geology , mineralogy , rare earth , geochemistry , rare earth element , dissolution , isotope , mantle (geology) , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
We present a new method that determines precisely and accurately rare earth elements (REE) at the sub‐ng g ‐1 level in ultramafic rocks based on acid dissolution and quadrupole ICP‐MS with systematic interference corrections on each sample. The method is demonstrated by analyses of the international geochemical reference materials, PCC‐1 (peridotite), DTS‐1 (dunite) and DTS‐2 (dunite) provided by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and JP‐1 (peridotite) issued by the Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ). Detection limits, as rock equivalent, were calculated to be 0.01‐0.08 ng g ‐1 for our instrument, which is sufficiently low compared to the REE concentrations of ultramafic rocks. In addition, procedural blanks of the proposed method were 0.2‐5 pg, which is negligible even for the ultra‐low level REE determinations. Reproducibility obtained from separate dissolutions and measurements of USGS DTS‐2 and GSJ JP‐1 was 3‐6%, which corresponds to the high‐precision data obtained by ID‐TIMS or magnetic sector field ICP‐MS with a desolvating nebuliser. The REE data determined exhibit smooth chondrite‐normalised REE patterns for all of the tested geochemical reference materials, and the abundances are in good agreement with recently published data.