Flame Spectrochemical Analysis of Magnesium by Differential Method

The magnesium content of human serum is determined directly by differential flame spectrochemical analysis.Serum is diluted with water to 1/10 concentration, atomized and excited in oxy-hydrogen flame at the optimal pressures H2 4.5 psi and O2 11.0 psi with a Beckman Model DU Spectrophotometer provided with 9200 Flame unit. Standard solution which contains NaCl, KCl, Ca++, glucose and glycine is made up into differential standard solution series with Mg++.These solutions show characteristic curves of relative flame luminosity vs.wavelength, which are recorded especially in the neibourhood of 371 mμ, 367 mμ and 374 mμ.From the values at these three wavelengths, background at 371 mμ was obtained and the true intensity of magnesium was determined graphically.Mean value of serum magnesium found in 36 examples was 15.7 ppm with relative deviation of 35.3%.