Simultaneous determination of neodymium and erbium in rare earth mixture with 5,7-dibromo-8-hydroxyquinoline and TX-100 by third-derivative spectrophotometry

Abstract

The absorption spectra of 4f electron transitions of the complexes of neodymium and erbium with 5,7-dibromo-8-hydroxyquinoline in the presence of octylphenol poly(ethyleneglycol)ether have been studied by normal and third-derivative spectrophotometry. The proposed method is free of interference of other rare earths. The calibration graphs were linear up to 18 μg/ml of neodymium and 21 μg/ml of erbium (in the final solution). The derivative molar absorptivities are 395 l.mol^–1.cm⁻¹ for neodymium and 3421.mol⁻¹.cm⁻¹ for erbium. The corresponding values of Sandell's sensitivity were 0.36 and 0.49 μg.cm⁻¹, respectively. The relative standard deviations evaluated from ten independent determinations of 2.5 μg/ml of neodymium and erbium are 1.5 and 3.8% for neodymium and 1.8 and 4.1% for erbium in absence and presence of 70 μg of lanthanum, respectively. The detection limits (signal to noise ratio=2) are 0.23 μg/ml for neodymium and 0.30 μg/ml for erbium. The method has been used for the determination of neodymium and erbium in mixed rare earths with satisfactory results.