Determination of germanium in coal ashes by hydride generation and flame atomic-absorption spectrophotometry

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Abstract
This paper describes the determination of germanium by atomic-absorption spectrophotometry with direct introduction into a dinitrogen oxide-acetylene flame of the germanium(IV) hydride generated by reducing with sodium tetrahydroborate(III) solution. A comparative study of the sensitivity of the germanium determination has been carried out and a study of interferences from lead(II), arsenic(III) and -(V), iron(II) and -(III), tellurium(IV), selenium(IV), antimony(III), tin(II), tartrates, oxalates and fluorides is described. The sensitivity of the proposed method is 0.012 µg ml–1 and the detection limit is approximately 100 times better than obtained with silica tube atomisation at a wavelength of 265.14 nm. The method has been applied to the determination of germanium in lignite ashes with an average germanium recovery of 97.65% and a relative standard deviation of 2.87%.

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