Lanthanoides in glass and glass ceramics

Many types of glass contain lanthanoides; among them, special glass for optical applications is the one with the highest content of lanthanoides. The precise determination of the lanthanoides' concentration is performed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). However, up to now, there are no established standard processes guaranteeing a uniform approach to the lanthanoide analysis. The knowledge of the lanthanoides' concentrations is necessary on the microscale in some cases, especially if a suitable separation and recycling procedure is to be applied. Here, the analysis is performed by energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) or wavelength-dispersive X-ray (WDX) analytics in the scanning electron microscope.