Masking of iron with fluoride in the extractive atomic-absorption spectrometric determination of chromium in steel.

Chromium in steel is determined by oxidation to dichromate, extraction into methyl isobutyl ketone from 1-3 M hydrochloric acid, and atomic-absorption measurements on the extract. The interference of iron in the atomic absorption is eliminated by using fluoride to keep the iron(III) in the aqueous phase in the extraction step.