How Feasible is Direct Determination of Rare Earth Elements in Seawater by ICP-MS?

With the increasingly wide industrial use of rare earth elements (REEs), their release into marine systems makes it important to understand in what quantities they occur and geochemical processes contribute, preferably using direct analytical methodology. In this study, performance high-resolution ICP-MS was assessed with regard quantification REEs seawater without matrix separation analyte preconcentration. optimized sample dilution, precise interference-free quantifications most samples taken from Kara Sea were obtained, an accuracy 3 9% (against independently asserted values), repeatability 5%, intermediate precision reproducibility, averaging 4 11%, respectively. The method further validated by a certified reference material for nearshore seawater. However, limits detection obtained (0.04 - 0.38 ng L-1), while not significantly inferior those after enrichment, appear be low enough analyze high salinity sea (over 30 parts per thousand) or open-ocean water samples, which require higher dilution factors contain (much) lower REE concentrations, Therefore, concluded that determination is only possible moderate such as estuarine shallow-sea water. latter case, longitudinal profiling assayed allowed us assume export contaminated land areas estuaries then rivers may substantially contribute pool REEs.