Effects of digestion, chemical separation, and deposition on Po-210 quantitative analysis

Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 302(1):673-678

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3255-2· OSTI ID:1191813

Seiner, Brienne N.; Morley, Shannon M.; Beacham, Tere A.; Haney, Morgan M.; Gregory, Stephanie J.; Metz, Lori A.

Polonium-210 is a radioactive isotope often used to study sedimentation processes, food chains, aerosol behavior, and atmospheric circulations related to environmental sciences. Materials for the analysis of Po-210 range from tobacco leaves or cotton fibers, to soils and sediments. The purpose of this work was to determine polonium losses from a variety of sample types (soil, cotton fiber, and air filter) due to digestion technique, chemical separation, and deposition method for alpha energy analysis. Results demonstrated that yields from a perchloric acid wet-ash were similar to that from a microwave digestion. Both were greater than the dry-ash procedure. The polonium yield from the perchloric acid wet ash was 87 ± 5%, the microwave digestion had a yield of 100 ± 7%, and the dry ash had a yield of 38 ± 5%. The chemical separation of polonium by an anion exchange resin was used only on the soil samples due to the complex nature of this sample. The yield of Po-209 tracer after chemical separation and deposition for alpha analysis was 83 ± 7% for the soil samples. Spontaneous deposition yields for the cotton and air filters were 87 ± 4% and 92 ± 6%, respectively. Based on the overall process yields for each sample type the amount of Po-210 was quantified using alpha energy analysis. The soil contained 0.18 ± 0.08 Bq/g, the cotton swipe contained 0.7 mBq/g, and the air filter contained 0.04 ± 0.02 mBq/g. High and robust yields of polonium are possible using a suitable digestion, separation, and deposition method.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1191813
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-101880; NN2003000
• Journal Information: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 302(1):673-678, Journal Name: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 302(1):673-678
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English