Determination of antimony in rocks by neutron-activation analysis

Abstract

Antimony has been determined in some geochemical standards (andesite AGV–1, diabase W–1, dunite DTS–1, granite GB and tonalite T–1) by neutron-activation analysis. A radiochemical procedure has been developed, in which antimony(V) is extracted into isopropyl ether and subsequently back-extracted after reduction to the tervalent state with tin(II). The antimony activity is measured by γ-spectrometry. Chemical-yield determination is carried out by re-activation. The precision of the method is better than 5 per cent. for samples with antimony content exceeding 1 p.p.m.