Abstract
The Bureau of Mines has developed a general method for preparing solutions from a wide range of metal and mineral samples for chemical analysis. The development of the method from current knowledge of vessel material, pressure dissolution techniques, and the fluoride-boric acid reaction is given. The method uses 7 ml of a mixture of hcl-hno3-hf acids in a ratio of 3.5:2:1.5 Sealed in plastic bottles that act as pressure vessels when heated in a boiling water bath. A final volume of 100 ml is obtained by the addition of 93 ml of a 1.5-Pct h3bo3 solution to the bottles, which are reheated; precipitated fluorides as well as sample residue are dissolved by the fluoride-boric acid reaction. A copper slag and a steelmaking slag treated using this method were analyzed by atomic absorption, spectroscopy yielding values for si, mg, ca, al, fe, mn, na, as, pb, sb, and zn very close to certifield values with an average relative standard deviation of 2.13 pct. The low cost, reduction in preparation time, ease and safety of sample handling, conservation of reagents, and ability to dissolve volatile materials without loss make this method superior to traditional wet digestion techniques for many materials, and ideal for use with atomic absorption, and optical emission or x-ray emission spectroscopy.
