March 2014 Archives

Prof. K. Binnemans (KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium) and his colleagues have published several papers on the application of TXRF to the determination and quantification of halide impurities in liquid. So far, the detection of halide ions in solution has been problematic because volatile hydrogen halide compounds are formed when the sample is mixed with the acidic metal standard solution. The loss of hydrogen halide during the drying step of the sample preparation procedure gives imprecise and inaccurate results. To avoid this, the research group is proposing to introduce an alkaline copper standard Cu(NH₃)₄(NO₃)₂. For more information, see the papers, "Determination of Halide Impurities in Ionic Liquids by Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry", T. V. Hoogerstraete et al., Anal. Chem., 86, 3931 (2014), and "Determination of Halide Ions in Solution by Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF) Spectrometry", T. V. Hoogerstraete et al., Anal. Chem., 86, 1391 (2014).