Instrumental determination of some trace elements in biological materials by epithermal and thermal neutron activation analysis

Abstract

The possibilities of increasing the utility of instrumental neutron activation analysis (NAA) of biomedical and environmental samples have been examined by introducing an epithermal neutron activation technique. The major advantage, in comparison with classical neutron activation methods, is found to be the reduction of interfering matrix activities, which allows the rapid instrumental determination of some trace elements of interest with minimum delay. The technique was evaluated using standard biological materials and the accuracy, precision, detection limits and the time scales of analysis were compared with those obtained using conventional thermal neutron activation. Results of the analysis of a mixture of plasma and erythrocytes are given to assess the method. The method can be applied to determine As, Br, Cd, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Rb, Se, Sr and Zn in biological materials without chemical separation.