Spectrochemical Investigation of Aluminum Master Alloys

The objective of this study is to observe the significance of sampling fractions in spectrochemical analysis of aluminium master alloys. Aluminium master alloys are difficult to analyze by routine analytical methods due to inhomogeneity and high percentage of the alloying elements. In this study aluminium master alloys were remelted along with aluminium ingots of 99.9% purity in an electrical crucible furnace and subsequently analysis by spark optical emission spectrometer (OES). The bulk samples of a particular aluminium master alloy for re-melting process was chosen by two different methods and evaluated for % recovery of the target element. It was observed that sampling fractions and compilation techniques greatly affects the compositional results of aluminium master alloys. The 20% bulk sampling showed good recoveries and very precise results for each alloying element in the respective master alloy. The results of spark OES were cross checked by X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) with the help of certified reference materials.