Rapid radiochemical separation of selected toxic elements in environmental samples prior to gamma ray spectrometry.

Toxic elements in a variety of environmental samples are activated by neutron bombardment for subsequent analysis by $gamma$ spectrometry. The radioactive isotopes of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, selenium, iodine, and zinc are chemically separated by using the liquid anion exchanger, triisooctylamine, following sample combustion. Significant improvements over currently used procedures are: a radiochemical separation that is quantitative in that all of the products trapped during combustion are contained in one of three sample fractions; an isolation of elements of interest from those elements with interfering $gamma$ energies; a procedure that has few chemical manipulations, thus minimizing related errors; a separation that is simple and requires less than 5 minutes to complete following combustion. In addition, the elements contained in liquid samples can be separated directly by liquid anion exchange, eliminating the combustion procedure. The methodology was tested by radiotracer experiments and by analyzing independently tested and certified coal and fly-ash samples. (auth)

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