Detection of zirconium in organic and aqueous phases using an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer and the same aqueous standards.

Solvent extraction requires measurement of both aqueous and organic phases, and common techniques of such measurements are tedious and time consuming. This paper outlines an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometric technique in which both aqueous and organic phases (both contained in a carrier phase, ethanol) can be measured using the same calibration curve. The method has proved to be successful as long as the organic and aqueous content in the carrier phase is kept below 10%. The developed technique is a more convenient tool for solvent extraction chemists who have often used radioactive tracers within their experimental techniques. In addition, this technique may be used in environmental studies involving the analysis of organic fractions, such as metal fingerprinting of petroleum fluids. In such analyses, the ability to use more available and traceable aqueous standards will lead to significantly improved confidence in the analytical results.