HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Free Full Text (PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by El Afifi, E. M. Articles by Borai, E. H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by El Afifi, E. M. Articles by Borai, E. H. Agricola Articles by El Afifi, E. M. Articles by Borai, E. H. Related Collections Water Management Radioactive Waste Heavy Metals Soil Pollution Water Pollution Soil Analysis

TECHNICAL REPORTS

Heavy Metals in the Environment

Performance Characteristics of Sequential Separation and Quantification of Lead-210 and Polonium-210 by Ion Exchange Chromatography and Nuclear Spectrometric Measurements

Hot Laboratories and Waste Management Center (HLWMC), Atomic Energy Authority, Post Office No. 13759, Cairo, Egypt

^* Corresponding author (emadborai{at}yahoo.com)

Received for publication May 28, 2005. A selective separation and quantitative determination procedure for ²¹⁰Pb and ²¹⁰Po in various environmental matrices from different sources such as IAEA-326 soil, phosphate rocks (PR), and phosphogypsum (PG) was developed. The tested samples were digested sequentially using concentrated mineral acids (HF, HNO₃) by a programmable high-pressure microwave digestion system. The sample solution was loaded onto a preconditioned ion exchange column (Sr-resin) for chromatographic separation. Polonium-210 was eluted by 6 M HNO₃ then spontaneously deposited onto polished silver discs to be measured using low-background alpha spectrometry. Lead-210 was sequentially eluted using 6 M HCl solution, precipitated as lead oxalate, dissolved in HNO₃ solution, and mixed with scintillation cocktail to be measured by liquid scintillation counting (LSC). Performance of the developed procedure was tested using a reference soil (IAEA-326), with recommended isotope values, that was used as a quality control to assess separation and quantification efficiency (recovery %). The minimum detectable activities of ²¹⁰Pb and ²¹⁰Po were found to be 24 and 0.28 Bq kg^–1 for the measurements using LSC and alpha spectrometry, respectively. The recoveries (%) of ²¹⁰Pb and ²¹⁰Po were found to be 80 and 60%, respectively. To test the validity of the proposed LSC method, a comparative study was performed by measuring ²¹⁰Pb activity concentration in test samples by nondestructive gamma-ray spectrometry.

Abbreviations: LSC, liquid scintillation counting • MDA, minimum detectable activity • PG, phosphogypsum • PR, phosphate rock