Issue 11, 2018

Capabilities of laser ablation – ICP-TOF-MS coupling for isotopic analysis of individual uranium micrometric particles

Abstract

Capabilities of laser ablation coupled to a time of flight ICP-MS (‘icpTOF’, Tofwerk) for direct isotopic analysis of U micrometric reference particles deposited on carbon disks were demonstrated. Thanks to the very high temporal resolution which allows quasi simultaneous measurement of all nuclides, the icpTOF is well-suited for the acquisition of the very short transient signals produced by laser ablation of μm-sized particles. With appropriate corrections of the background due to high peak tailing of the 238U isotope and selection of signals within the detector's linear range, excellent internal and external precisions (0.2–0.4%) for measurement of the 235U/238U ratios were obtained in the most favorable cases (same abundances for the two isotopes). These precisions are better than the values reported until now in the literature, even with laser ablation coupled with multi-collector ICP-MS (MC-ICP-MS). For particles from other reference materials with low abundances of 235U, equal or close to the one of natural U, precisions for 235U/238U ratio measurements (4–5%) were not as good as the ones reported for MC-ICP-MS, but better than the ones obtained with single collector ICP-MS. Minor isotope ratios (234U/238U and 236U/238U) were also successfully measured, although with limited precision and accuracy when the abundances of the minor isotopes are very low, in the 10−5 range. This work shows that laser ablation coupled to ICP-TOF-MS has a great potential for ultra-precise isotope ratio measurements provided that the ablated area contains enough analyte and that abundances between isotopes are of the same order of magnitude.

Graphical abstract: Capabilities of laser ablation – ICP-TOF-MS coupling for isotopic analysis of individual uranium micrometric particles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
17 Jul 2018
Accepted
30 Aug 2018
First published
31 Aug 2018

J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2018,33, 1892-1902

Capabilities of laser ablation – ICP-TOF-MS coupling for isotopic analysis of individual uranium micrometric particles

A. Ronzani, F. Pointurier, M. Rittner, O. Borovinskaya, M. Tanner, A. Hubert, A. Humbert, J. Aupiais and N. Dacheux, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2018, 33, 1892 DOI: 10.1039/C8JA00241J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements