Abstract
Varying concentrations of lanthanum and strontium were added to solutions of ashed unused lubricating
oils for the determination of calcium, magnesium and zinc content using flame atomic absorption
spectrophotometry. At least 3000 ~tg g-~ of lanthanum or strontium was required to completely overcome
the interference of the phosphate ion, PO 3-, and give peak values for calcium. The presence of lanthanum
or strontium did not cause an appreciable increase in the amount of magnesium and zinc obtained from the
analyses. The method is fast and reproducible, and the coefficients of variation calculated for the elements
using one of the samples were 1.6% for calcium, 3.5% for magnesium and 0.2% for zinc. Results obtained
by this method were better than those obtained by other methods for the same samples.