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L.B. Riley

Publications and source records attributed to L.B. Riley.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1968

Determination of palladium, platinum and rhodium in geologic materials by fire assay and emission spectrography

A method is described for the determination of palladium down to 4ppb (parts per billion, 10 9 ), platinum down to 10 ppb and rhodium down to 5 ppb in 15 g of sample. Fire-assay techniques are used to preconcentrate the platinum metals into a gold bead, then the bead is dissolved in aqua regia and diluted to volume with 1 M hydrochloric acid. The solution is analysed by optical emission spectrography of the residue from 200 μl of it evaporated on a pair of flat-top graphite electrodes. This method requires much less sample handling than most published methods for these elements. Data are presented for G-1, W-1, and six new standard rocks of the U.S. Geological Survey. The values for palladium in W-1 are in reasonable agreement with previously published data.

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USGS1967

Determination of gold in geologic materials by solvent extraction and atomic-absorption spectrometry

The two methods presented for the determination of traces of gold in geologic materials are the cyanide atomic-absorption method and the fire-assay atomic-absorption method. In the cyanide method gold is leached with a sodium-cyanide solution. The monovalent gold is then oxidized to the trivalent state and concentrated by extracting into methyl isobutyl ketone prior to estimation by atomic absorption. In the fire-assay atomic-absorption method, the gold-silver bead obtained from fire assay is dissolved in nitric and hydrochloric acids. Gold is then concentrated by extracting into methyl isobutyl ketone prior to determination by atomic absorption. By either method concentrations as low as 50 parts per billion of gold can be determined in a 15-gram sample.

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