Abstract: A spectrophotometric method for the direct simultaneous determination of five trace rare earth in high pure metallic praseodymium is described. The ethanol sample solution was introduced into the plasma for desolvation. The effect of matrix concentration on detection limits,and the calculation and correction of spectral interferences in ICP-AES have been investigated. For the sample solution containing 5 mg/mL of Pr,the limits of determination were 0.002% for La,Nd and Sm,0.003 for Ceand 0.0005% for Y. The accuracies of the determinations were satisfactory and the relative standard deviations were in the range of 1.2～6.2%.

Key words: praseodymium, inductively coupled plasma, spectral interference, desolvation