A method of anal. of high purity yttrium oxide with inductively coupled plasma-at. emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) is described with emphasis on the study of Y2O3 matrix effects. The results showed that the line intensities of analytes decreased with the increase of Y2O3 concentration in solution because of following factors: (1) the presence of matrix resulted in the decrease of the amount of analytes reaching ICP; (2) the Y2O3 matrix entering the plasma decreased the excitation temperature of the plasma and depressed the ionization of analytes in the plasma. The effects of ICP operating conditions, ethanol concentration and desovlation temperature on matrix effect have also been observed The Sc internal standard method instead of the matrix-matching method is suggested to attenuate the matrix effect. The optimum concentration of Y2O3 sample in solution were studied. The method has been applied to the determination of 14 rare earth elements in high-purity yttrium oxide with satisfactory results.

Key words: MATRIX, INTERNAL STANDARD, HIGH PURITY MATERIALS, SCANDIUM, ICP-ATOMIC EMISSION SPECTROMETRY, YTTRIUM OXIDE, PLASMA EMISSION SPECTROPHOTOMETRY