The possibility of direct analysis of soils by two-jet plasma atomic emission spectrometry was investigated using certified reference materials of black earth, grey desert and red soils. It was shown that As, B, Cd, Cu, Hg, P, and V could be determined after a 2-fold, and Be, Co, Cr, Ga, Nb, Pb, and Zn-after a 10-fold dilution of the samples by a spectroscopic buffer using calibration samples based on graphite powder. The strongest matrix effects were revealed for red soil having the highest Al and Fe concentration, which led to the overstated concentrations of some elements. The overstating factor depended on analyte concentration and was no more than 2. A clear advantage of the suggested technique over existing methods is the simple sample preparation process, which requires no reagents except a spectroscopic buffer, and possibility of using the same calibration samples for analysis of different soils.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.