Scandium standard

[UMass Probe Facility]

Well, we get to try some scandium analysis, so time to see what might be a good, trust-worthy standard.  Anyone have any experience with this?

[Probeman]

Well, we get to try some scandium analysis, so time to see what might be a good, trust-worthy standard.  Anyone have any experience with this?

Hi there,
Usually scandium is a trace element, therefore it wouldn't really matter what you use as a standard (the background characterization being the critical aspect for a trace element).  So if it is indeed a trace element, why not just scandium metal?

If the scandium is present in higher concentrations and you'd prefer a closer matrix match, there is a ScPO4 standard out there. See attached paper below.
john

[Jeremy Wykes]

Crystal gmbh is having a sale on some substrate material at the moment.

57 euro for a 5×5×1 mm substrate of DyScO3

http://crystal-gmbh.com/en/customers/sale.php

Note the unpleasant shipping charges.

[UMass Probe Facility]

This is very helpful John and Jeremy.  I didn't think to check the Boatner set, but this makes perfect sense as many chemists put it with the rare earths.  Sure enough we had a small piece of ScPO4 in a capsule that was never mounted.  Of course, we know the issues with those orthophosphate standards.  Truly pure metal seems to be a bit hard to come by (usually has some Ta component), and they ship under Argon I think, so maybe not too stable (and it's expensive).  This DyScO3 substrate is really interesting.  The Sc in the unknown maybe major, it is at least minor, and not trace.

[AndrewLocock]

In addition MTI (www.mtixtl.com) sells polished DyScO3, GdScO3, and TbScO3 (respectively, U.S.$ 129, 85, and 100).

I obtained some Sc metal turnings from PIDC, Lot A43932-ER. The certificate of analysis reported (in ppm): Al 304, Ni 94, Si 77, Fe 54, Cu 32, Th 12, Ti 10, along with a host of elements less than 5 ppm, yielding a Sc concentration of 99.94 wt%. I note that Ta was not analyzed.

I still have around 4 g of turnings, and a 2 g vacuum-melted lump.