Oxidative Quaternary Acidic Mixture on Microwave-assisted Digestion for High-Carbon Iron Samples

This paper suggested an improved method for the sample preparation of pig iron and cast iron in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Conventional digestion methods using a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, associated with fuming with phosphoric and sulfuric acids or fuming with perchloric acid, have a poor-ability to decompose the iron sample completely. Alternatively, a microwave digestion method using an acidic mixture of hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, and potassium chlorate, enabled various iron samples to be fully decomposed. The suggested procedure was applicable to quantify titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, nickel, copper, and molybdenum in high-carbon iron samples using a similar dissolution method.