The Determination of Selenium and Tellurium in Stainless Steel, White Cast Iron, and Nickel Base Alloy Standard Reference Materials by Isotope Dilution Spark Source Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Procedures using stable isotope dilution spark source mass spectrometry were developed for the simultaneous determination of selenium and tellurium in stainless steels, white cast irons, and nickel based alloys. The selenium and tellurium were reduced using hypophosphorous acid except in the nickel based alloy where electrodeposition onto gold was also used for tellurium. A gold carrier was used to scavenge the selenium and tellurium efficiently during reduction. The samples were homogenized with gold and introduced into the mass spectrometer as electrodes. The concentrations calculated from the general isotope dilution equation ranged from 0.14 μg/g for selenium to 353 μg/g for tellurium. The materials tested were ten different Standard Reference Materials available from the NBS.