EN 15991:2011

Testing of ceramic and basic materials - Direct determination of mass fractions of impurities in powders and granules of silicon carbide by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) with electrothermal vaporisation (ETV) EN 15991:2011

Publication date:   May 17, 2011

Scope

This European Standard defines a method for the determination of the trace element concentrations of Al, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Ni, Ti, V and Zr in powdered and granular silicon carbide.
Dependent on element, wavelength, plasma conditions and weight, this test method is applicable for mass contents of the above trace contaminations from about 0,1 mg/kg to about 1 000 mg/kg, after evaluation also from 0,001 mg/kg to about 5 000 mg/kg.
NOTE 1 Generally for optical emission spectrometry using inductively coupled plasma (ICP OES) and electrothermal vaporisation (ETV) there is a linear working range of up to four orders of magnitude. This range can be expanded for the respective elements by variation of the weight or by choosing lines with different sensitivity.
After adequate verification, the standard is also applicable to further metallic elements (excepting Rb and Cs) and some non-metallic contaminations (like P and S) and other allied non-metallic powdered or granular materials like carbides, nitrides, graphite, soot, coke, coal, and some other oxidic materials (see [1], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9] and [10]).
NOTE 2 There is positive experience with materials like for example graphite, B4C, Si3N4, BN and several metal oxides as well as with the determination of P and S in some of these materials.