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DOI: 10.1039/A900071B (Paper) Reference Section for: J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 1999, 14, 859-865

Determination of plutonium concentration and its isotopic ratio in environmental materials by ICP-MS after separation using and extraction chromatography

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Yasuyuki Muramatsu, Shigeo Uchida, Keiko Tagami, Satoshi Yoshida and Takashi Fujikawa

Abstract

An analysis method for 239Pu and 240Pu in environmental samples (including four certified reference materials) by ICP-MS was studied. Two types of chromatographic resin, Dowex 1X8 and TEVA, were examined for their applicability to the separation of Pu from the matrix elements. Sufficient decontamination factors (104-105) for many matrix elements including U, which interferes with the detection of mass 239, were obtained with both resins. The detection limit of Pu by ICP-MS was about 0.02 pg ml–1 (0.05 mBq ml–1 for 239Pu; 0.17 mBq ml–1 for 240Pu) in the sample solution or 0.1 pg in the sample. Analytical results of 239+240Pu in certified reference materials (IAEA-135, -SOIL-6, -368 and -134) indicated that the accuracy of the method was satisfactory. Data on the 240Pu/239Pu atom ratios in these reference materials, which are scarce in the literature, were also obtained, i.e., 0.211 for IAEA-135, 0.191 for IAEA-SOIL-6, 0.043 for IAEA-368 and 0.200 for IAEA-134. Compared with alpha-spectrometry, the ICP-MS method has significant advantages in terms of its simple analytical procedures, prompt measurement time and capability of determining the 240Pu/239Pu ratio.

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