Spectrographic Determination of Traces of Iron in Copper and Silver by Carrier Distillation

Abstract

A quantitative spectrographic method has been developed for the determination of traces of iron in high-purity copper and silver. The use of copper chloride as a spectrographic carrier improves the sensitivity and enables the method to be used over a very wide range of concentrations. Samples containing from 0.004 to more than 150 μg of iron (0.07–2500 ppm) can be determined by the identical procedure. A series of 15 replicate copper samples containing 6.4 ppm iron yielded a coefficient of variation of 5.2%. The intensity of the iron spectrum is apparently independent of the copper or silver matrix, which greatly simplifies the preparation of calibration curves. Methods for the preparation of iron-free copper chloride and for purifying graphite electrodes are also outlined.