A novel method for the online measurement of impurities in uranium by coupling microfluidics with ICP-MS

Abstract

For trace impurity measurements in uranium, the matrix is expected to be removed prior to analysis, usually achieved by offline separation methods involving relatively large amounts of radioactive samples. Herein, a novel online method is developed for impurity separation and measurements by interfacing microfluidics and ICP-MS. In this method, the uranium matrix is removed via micro-extraction in parallel two-layer laminar flow (PTL) microfluidics, and the remaining impurities in the aqueous phase are directly analyzed by ICP-MS. The separation efficiency and the analytical performance of this method are evaluated, and the method is validated using both the certified reference material (CRM) and the real sample. Such an online PTL-ICP-MS method features less radioactive waste and lowers the risk of exposure to radioactive materials.