• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.161-172
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• 2011

Open beaker digestion method is routinely used as the sample preparation technique for trace element determination of rock samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, With this method, however, dissolution of Zr and Hf is not always guaranteed especially when the samples contain refractory minerals. In this study, glass bead digestion technique was compared with conventional open beaker digestion technique for the sample preparation of three USGS rock standards such as AGV-2, BHVO-2, and G-3. Thirty trace elements including rare earth elements were analysed by ICP-MS and ICP-AES. There were no clear differences in analytical results for the AGV-2 and BHVO-2 standards between the two techniques, but Zr, Hf, Y, and middle- to heavy- rare earth element concentrations of the G-3 standard prepared by open beaker digestion technique were significantly lower than the recommended values. This can be attributed to the presence of refractory mineral zircon. On the contrary, all the analytical results of the G-3 standard prepared by glass bead digestion technique were in good agreement with the recommended values, indicating complete dissolution of zircon. The analytical results show that the volatile elements such as Pb and Zn were not lost during the preparation of glass bead. Low dilution glass bead digestion technique described here will be very helpful to enhance precision and accuracy of trace element analysis for geological samples containing refractory minerals.