Abstract:The tailing slag sample was firstly digested by hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid. And then sulfuric acid was added to the digestion solution, which resulted in the formation of titanium complex and thus prevented the hydrolysis occurred in a low acidity medium. The solution was further heated to produce sulfur trioxide smoke that could eliminate hydrofluoric acid from the solution. After the solution was diluted with water and went through a predetermined volume test, the content of vanadium in the tailing slag were directly detected by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). By experiments, the factors that interfere the detection of vanadium in the complicated matrix containing elements such as iron, titanium, aluminum, chromium, manganese, vanadium, etc., were investigated. The interfering factors that were studied included matrix effect, spectral interference and background noise, etc. In addition, the influence of the complicated and volatile sample matrix on the determination was eliminated by conducting several measures, such as proper choice of spectral lines for element analysis, background correction, optimization of spectrometer working parameters, matrix matching and synchronized background correction, etc. The results show that the method can be used for the determination of vanadium in the content range of 0.01% to 6.0% . There are no influences on the determination of vanadium observed when the iron content varies from 20% to 40%, the titanium content varies from 5 to 30%, and the content variations of sodium, aluminum, chromium, manganese, silicon calcium and magnesium are from 1% to 10% in the matrix. The lower limit of detection is 0.000 9%, RSDs are less than 3%, and recovery rates are in the range of 94% to 106%. The results are consistent with those by potassium permanganate oxidation-ammonium ferrous sulfate titration method.