Preparation of REE-doped NaY(WO) single crystals for quantitative determination of rare earth elements in REE:NaY(WO) laser crystals by LA-ICP-MS

• Published in: Analytical methods 2022-10, Vol.14 (41), p.485-494
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yu, Sun, Yijian, Zhou, Jianzong, Yang, Jian, Deng, Jun, Shao, Jianfeng, Zheng, Tengfei, Ke, Yuqiu, Long, Tao
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1759-9660; 1759-9679
• DOI: 10.1039/d2ay01247b

In REE:NaY(WO 4 ) 2 laser crystals, optical properties like laser conversion efficiency are dependent on the doped rare earth element (REE) concentration, which necessitates the importance for accurate determination of the REE concentration in these precious samples. However, in situ microanalysis of these samples by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is often hampered by the lack of matrix-matched reference materials. In this work, a REE-doped NaY(WO 4 ) 2 single crystal (NaYW-500) that has a nominal REE concentration of 500 μg g −1 was synthesized and employed as a candidate reference material. Its homogeneity (1 RSD of elemental concentration or 89 Y-normalized signal intensity) was measured by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and LA-ICP-MS to be less than 2% for major elements and mainly