The abundance and elemental ratios of the rare earth elements (REE) are used as indicators of the petrogenesis of rocks.  Typical basaltic rocks have REEs in ppm abundances.  Ultramafic igneous rocks have extremely low concentrations of the REE at or near the detection limit of the ICP-MS.  Ion-exchange columns have been used to remove unwanted elements thereby concentrating REEs so they can be detected by the ICP-MS without additional dilution.  Exchange columns consisted of a 30 mL beaker with a conical bottom that was welded to 30 cm long, quarter-inch diameter Teflon tubing.  Twenty-one cm of 50Wx8 cation exchange resin (200-400 mesh) was placed in the columns for all extractions.  Samples were dissolved in HNO3 and HF, dried; redissolved in HCl, and loaded into the column.  The first 70 mL of eluent gave >99% of the REEs were captured off the column.

Ion exchange chromatography techniques for determination of rare earth elements in ultramafic rocks

245th National Meeting (2013)

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