Determination of Platinum‐Group Elements and Gold in Ferromanganese Nodule Reference Samples

Abstract

A measurement procedure for determining of Ru, Pd, Ir, Pt and Au mass fractions in ferromanganese deposits by inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry after acid digestion and anion exchange preconcentration is presented. To eliminate incomplete recovery after sorption preconcentration of the platinum‐group elements ( PGE ) and Au, a standard addition method was used. Detection limits ranged from 0.02 ng (Pd, Ir) to 0.19 ng (Ru). The measurement results for ferromanganese nodule reference material NOD ‐A‐1 and NOD ‐P‐1 agree with earlier reported values. Intermediate precision of PGE concentration data for nodule reference materials in this work was 5–24% (1 s ) and could reflect sample heterogeneity.