Development of a simple and efficient microwave digestion method for determination of trace elements in coal

The purpose of this study is to develop simple and efficient microwave digestion method for quantitative recovery of multi-elements from coal and coal derived products. Compared to the traditional digestion method in which the combined use of HCl, HNO{sub 3} and HF as well as a pretreatment before instrumental analysis to remove the organic residue are ordinarily required, the present method has become simplified by only use of HNO{sub 3} as digestion reagent and the pretreatment is possibly left out. Nineteen trace elements (Li, Be, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Cd, Cs, Ba, Hg, and Pb) in the solution was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and flow injection (FI) ICP-MS. The validation of the present method was assessed by using three standard coals and comparing to the determination results of more coals obtained by the standard analysis methods. Most trace elements in the coals were found to be recovered quantitatively. (Abstract only).