A new chemical separation procedure for the determination of rare earth elements and yttrium abundances in carbonates by ICP-MS

The determination of rare earth elements (REEs) and Y in carbonates can be complicated by low REE abundances and the presence of significant amounts of Ba resulting in problematic interferences when analysed by ICP-MS. We describe here a novel ion-exchange method using the DGA resin (TODGA), combined with addition of a Tm spike, which allows the separation of the REEs+Y as a whole prior to analysis using an Element XR ICP-MS. This method was validated with results obtained on three different reference carbonate materials (CAL-S, JLs-1 and BEAN, an in-house standard), yielding reproducibility levels better than 3% (RSD) in most cases. This new separation scheme is particularly well suited for carbonate samples having very low REE contents, but could be equally applied to various rock types and organic-rich sample matrices whenever quantitative Ba removal is required. [Display omitted] •A novel cation exchange method was developed for the analysis of REE+Y in carbonates by ICP-MS.•Measurements of REEs were free of Ba interferences.•Low blanks and high enrichment-factor for REEs+Y are achieved, and allow the analysis of ultradepleted samples.•Precision better than 3 % RSD was achieved for most elements analysed.