The possibility of atomic-emission determination of the main components in powder samples with spectra excitation in an AC arc is studied. An arc source of excitation is actually used mainly in approximate-quantitative emission spectral analysis of geological objects for determination of the main components. The goal of the study is to reduce the error of determination of the macro components of the samples when using the aforementioned procedure. The object of the study is a

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... r catalyst. The spectra are recorded on a DFS-458Cautomated atomic-emission spectrometer. A photoelectron attachment FEP-454 with a CCD-array (Toshiba) is used as a radiation detector in the spectrometer. FEP-454 boasts a system of dynamic accumulation which provides more efficient simultaneous determination of the impurity and sample base components. A calibration curve was constructed using model mixtures for quantitative determination of the matrix elements in real samples. It is shown that the mutual impact of the matrix elements in the arc discharge is almost completely leveled by 16-fold dilution of the samples with a spectrographic buffer. The results of the study prove the possibility of using arc atomic emission analysis for determination both micro- and macro-components in powder samples with a satisfactory accuracy.