title: Simultaneous determination of specific alpha and beta emitters by LSC-PLS in water samples.
abstract: Liquid scintillation counting (LSC) is a commonly used technique for the determination of alpha and beta emitters. However, LSC has poor resolution and the continuous spectra for beta emitters hinder the simultaneous determination of several alpha and beta emitters from the same spectrum. In this paper, the feasibility of multivariate calibration by partial least squares (PLS) models for the determination of several alpha (natU,241Am and226Ra) and beta emitters (40K,60Co,90Sr/90Y,134Cs and137Cs) in water samples is reported. A set of alpha and beta spectra from radionuclide calibration standards were used to construct three PLS models. Experimentally mixed radionuclides and intercomparision materials were used to validate the models. The results had a maximum relative bias of 25% when all the radionuclides in the sample were included in the calibration set; otherwise the relative bias was over 100% for some radionuclides. The results obtained show that LSC-PLS is a useful approach for the simultaneous determination of alpha and beta emitters in multi-radionuclide samples. However, to obtain useful results, it is important to include all the radionuclides expected in the studied scenario in the calibration set.
authors.affiliation: Analytical Chemistry Department, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: jordi.fons@ub.edu.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fons-Castells
authors.affiliation: Analytical Chemistry Department, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tent-Petrus
authors.affiliation: Analytical Chemistry Department, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Llauradó
mesh_terms: D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012588:Scintillation Counting / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive
keywords: Alpha emitters; Beta emitters; Multivariant calibration; Partial least squares; Simultaneous quantification