Abstract:Antimony is a globally significant strategic mineral resource.Rapid and accurate determination of antimony content in antimony ores is crucial for their exploration and extraction. This study employs Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to optimize the experimental conditions for the determination of antimony using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES).The study considers the amount of potassium chlorate,dissolution temperature,and extractant concentration as single factors,with ranges set at 0.4-1.6 g,70-130℃, and 5-35%,respectively.Based on the Box-Behnken Design (BBD) in RSM,a three-factor, three-level experimental design was established using the measured values of antimony ore as the response value.A quadratic polynomial regression model was obtained,and variance analysis was conducted to evaluate its significance.The model yielded an F-value of 421.94,P-value < 0.0001, R2 = 0.9982, R2adj = 0.9958,C.V. (coefficient of variation) = 1.49%,and S/N (signal-to-noise ratio) = 59.54,indicating that the model explains over 98% of the response value variation.The optimal determination conditions identified were 0.9 g of potassium chlorate,a dissolution temperature of 100℃,and a hydrochloric acid concentration of 15% in the extractant.The relative errors in the determination of four antimony ore standard materials ranged from 0.34% to 0.89%,with relative standard deviations (RSD) from 0.54% to 1.12%,meeting the accuracy and precision requirements for rock and mineral analysis.This indicates that the RSM-optimized method for determining antimony content in antimony ores is accurate and reliable.This study demonstrates the potential application of RSM in complex sample analysis and provides an effective experimental tool for optimizing analytical chemistry methods.