title: Rapid determination of radium-224/226 in seawater sample by alpha spectrometry.
abstract: A new radiochemical separation method has been developed for rapid determination of alpha-emitting radium isotopes in seawater samples. This method can be applied for the measurement of226Ra in seawater samples when224Ra is used as tracer for chemical recovery correction. Likewise,226Ra can also be added as tracer for the determination of224Ra in seawater sample. In the method, radium is first pre-concentrated with hydrous titanium oxide (HTiO) and is purified by combined anion/cation exchange column chromatographic separation. The radium in the eluate is then co-precipitated with HTiO, dissolved in 9 M H2SO4, and followed through a BaSO4micro-precipitation step to prepare a thin-layer counting source to determine the activities of224Ra/226Ra by alpha spectrometry. Replicate spike and blank samples were measured to evaluate the performance of the procedure. The minimum detectable activity concentration was determined to be 0.5 mBq·L-1for226Ra and 0.4 mBq·L-1for224Ra in 1 L of seawater sample with a counting time of 48 h. The method is a promising candidate for rapid measurement for alpha-emitting Ra isotopes in a large population of environment water samples.
authors.affiliation: China Institute for Radiation Protection, Taiyuan, China. Electronic address: songlj12@lzu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: China Institute for Radiation Protection, Taiyuan, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Suzhou, China. Electronic address: yangyonggang1123@163.com.
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: China Institute for Radiation Protection, Taiyuan, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Suzhou, China. Electronic address: luomaoyi414@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maoyi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: China Institute for Radiation Protection, Taiyuan, China. Electronic address: 13546727936@163.com.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: China Institute for Radiation Protection, Taiyuan, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Suzhou, China. Electronic address: daixx@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Xiongxin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dai
mesh_terms: D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011883:Radium / Q000032:analysis*; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive; D011883:Radium
keywords: Alpha spectrometry; Radium-224; Radium-226; Seawater