Abstract

The general alloy analysis technique has proven to be very useful in our laboratory. By using a modification of this technique a special analytical problem was solved and is reported here. This problem came about through the metallurgical studies in the Air Force Materials Laboratory on the effect of trace level additions of titanium, boron, zirconium, and beryllium on grain refining and other metallurgical properties for 7075 aluminum alloys. For these studies, it was necessary to determine the concentration level in the base material as well as the concentration after the additions. A point-to-plane technique could have been used but standards were not readily available for concentration levels of interest. Normal solution techniques such as the rotating disk will not provide adequate limits of detection for these low levels. In order to provide greater line intensities for the trace elements it was necessary to change the general alloy technique by increasing the carrier gas flow, current, and the concentration level of the analytical solution. Table I gives the operational parameters used. Synthetic standards were prepared containing the proper amounts of aluminum, zinc, magnesium, and copper for the alloy and using a blank plus increasing increments of the elements of interest. With the blank as the low standard, the following concentration ranges were covered: titanium 10–1010 ppm; boron 6-206 ppm; zirconium 15–1015 ppm; and beryllium 5–95 ppm. Both standards and samples were made up to contain 10 mg/ml of the alloy, 15 mg/ml of sodium chloride, and 0.02 mg/ml of indium, the internal standard. The analytical lines that were used are given in Table II. Duplicate determinations of standards and samples were made on each plate and analytical curves were prepared after correcting for the blank and where necessary the background.

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