Abstract: The analysis method for determination of the impurities，such as nickel，copper，iron，sodium，zinc，and calcium， in basic cobalt carbonate based on the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry（ICP-OES） has been pres- ented.The determination conditions and operating parameters were also investigated.The standard addition method was adopted to remove matrix effect，and appropriate spectral line was selected to eliminate spectrum disturbance.Compared with atomic absorption spectrophotometry（AAS），ICP-OES method had a faster analysis speed and a higher accuracy.

Key words: ICP-OES, standard addition method, spectral interference, basic cobalt carbonate