Flame Spectrophotometric Analysis of Glasses and Ores: I, Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, and Cesium

The alkali elements in a wide range of glass and feldspar ore compositions can be rapidly determined with the flame spectrophotometer without making chemical separations. Flame photometer response to lithium, sodium, and potassium seems little affected by the presence of many of the glass constituents in concentration ranges commonly found in commercial glasses. The mean deviation in absolute per cent between chemical and flame photometer analyses for a series of twenty‐nine glass and ore samples is approximately 0.15% for each of the three common alkalis lithium, sodium, and potassium. Evaluation of the rubidium and cesium results was not possible since chemical analyses for these elements were not available.