An Intercomparison Study of Analytical Methods for the Determination of Magnesium in Low Alloy Steel

• Published in: Steel research international 2012-02, Vol.83 (2), p.146-149
• Main Authors: Recknagel, Sebastian, Richter, Silke, Reinholdsson, Fredrik, Pettersson, Jean, Gustavsson, Ingemar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: GD-MS; ICP-MS; ICP-OES; spark-OES; steel
• ISSN: 1611-3683; 1869-344X; 1869-344X
• DOI: 10.1002/srin.201100187

In an intercomparison study three low alloy steel materials were analyzed on their content of the trace element Mg, and five different analytical techniques were used, namely spark‐OES, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP‐OES), inductively coupled plasma time of flight mass spectrometry (ICP‐TOFMS), inductively coupled plasma quadrupole mass spectrometry (ICP‐QMS), and glow discharge mass spectrometry (GD‐MS). Solid steel discs were used for analysis with spark‐OES and GD‐MS. For the analyses with ICP‐OES, ICP‐TOFMS, and ICP‐QMS steel chips were wet‐digested in aqua regia, and the wet‐digestion was performed either in polypropylene tubes placed in a heating block or in Teflon pressure vessels using a microwave assisted system. The Mg concentrations obtained for the three steel materials were: 2.0, 2.8, and 10.3 µg g−1, respectively, and the spread in results was acceptable, giving RSD values in the range of 20–30%. The robust analytical method spark‐OES can be used for determination of the element magnesium in low alloy steel at trace element concentrations, 2–10 µg g−1, which was confirmed by comparison with the results obtained by the four sensitive analytical methods: ICP‐OES, ICP‐TOFMS, ICP‐QMS, and GDMS. The results agreed well.