Issue 4, 2023

Rapid isotopic analysis of uranium particles by laser ablation MC-ICP-MS

Abstract

We present a methodology for characterizing the isotopic composition of uranium (U) in μm-scale particles by laser ablation multicollector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Analyses were performed using two U particle materials, 235U-enriched Certified Reference Material (CRM) U200 and depleted uranium (DU) produced by Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). The laser was rastered over the sample surface and the signal derived from each individual particle was integrated separately and reduced using a bespoke data reduction package, including application of corrections for instrumental mass bias and ion counter gains. Accurate 234U/238U, 235U/238U and 236U/238U ratios were obtained with percent-level precision in samples with isotopic compositions spanning >2 orders of magnitude, including successfully resolving 234U and 236U abundances of <10 ppm and <80 ppm respectively in SRNL-DU. Comparable results obtained by laser ablation (LA) MC-ICP-MS and large geometry—secondary ionization mass spectrometry (LG-SIMS) indicate that laser ablation can provide valuable information when rapid U isotopic analysis of environmental samples is required.

Graphical abstract: Rapid isotopic analysis of uranium particles by laser ablation MC-ICP-MS

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 dec 2022
Accepted
24 jan 2023
First published
09 feb 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2023,38, 827-840

Rapid isotopic analysis of uranium particles by laser ablation MC-ICP-MS

J. Wimpenny, K. M. Samperton, P. Sotorrio, M. S. Wellons, S. M. Scott, D. Willingham and K. Knight, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2023, 38, 827 DOI: 10.1039/D2JA00403H

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