Indirect Determination of Gold Purity by Measurement of Impurities with Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Determination of the purity of scrap and refined gold is a very important procedure for the financial markets, jewelry businesses and the electronics industry. Classically, the fire assay technique had been used for gold determination; however this method is very labor intensive and prone to operator errors. This application note discusses the use of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy as a very acceptable technique for gold assays and demonstrates that these analyses can be performed simply with the Buck Model 210VGP Atomic Absorption System.