A novel inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry method for uranium isotope ratio measurements using chemometric techniques

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry was applied for uranium isotope ratio measurement. Even high resolution spectrometers cannot resolve small isotopic shift between ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U emission lines. Multivariate calibration techniques are useful tools for overcoming spectral overlap. The emission spectra of natural and depleted uranium samples were modelled by the laboratory written PLS-2 program (according to PLS algorithm). Four factors were selected as the optimum number of factors. The PLS model was applied on an independent test set. The results were validated by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS). A good agreement between the predicted results from the PLS-2 model and the TIMS results were obtained.