China Nonferrous Metallurgy

Currently, magnesium content in the zinc-based alloy in China is 1% to 5%, and in this range, the determination of magnesium content lacks relevant standards and methods. Some manufacturers adopt ICP method for determination, yet there are two problems. On the one hand, ICP method isn’t a national standard method; on the other hand, ICP instrument is expensive and not applicable to every production enterprise. MCC Huludao Nonferrous Metals Group Co., Ltd. has developed a method of using flame atomic absorption spectrometer to determine magnesium content in Zn-Al-Mg rare earth alloy, characterized by the advantages of simple operation, good precision, low cost and fast speed. And this method considers the interference of coexistent elements and select strontium chloride as the remover, with the determination range of magnesium as 0.5% to 5% and sample recovery rate over 98%. This method is illustrated and analyzed in this paper through addition of reference material and precision test.