Abstract
Saudi Arabian soil samples from different locations have been collected and analyzed for traces of barium (Ba), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), silver (Ag), gold (Au), copper (Cu), lithium (Li), and lead (Pb). Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS) has been found to be useful for soil analysis. Two commonly used digestion methods, one employing nitric acid and the other aqua regia, are employed for sample pretreatment. Percentage recovery of added element quantities are found to be within the 97.4 to 101.2% range for Ba, Co, Ni, Ti, and V using aqua regia digestion and within the 95.0 to 05.0% range for Ag, Au, Cu, Li, and Pb when using the nitric acid digestion method. The percentage relative standard deviation (% RSD) for five replicate samples for the two digestion procedures is less than 5% for the analyzed elements.