Rare earth elements (REEs) are often referred to as "industrial vitamins", as they are used in a variety of traditional industrial fields as well as in new materials. A particularly important application of some REEs, for example high-purity praseodymium oxide (Pr6O11), is their use in optoelectronic communication technology, and as with all REEs in these types of applications, the purity of the material and the ability to detect impurities is vitally important. However, one of the biggest challenges in the analysis of impurities in purified REE compounds, such as Pr6O11, is that the impurities are often present at extremely low concentrations.
This work demonstrates the ability of the NexION® 5000 multi-quadrupole ICP-MS to accurately and directly measure 14 trace REE impurities in high-purity Pr6O11 using a combination of Standard and Mass Shift modes with oxygen and pure ammonia.