Journal article
High resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for the trace determination of plutonium isotopes and isotope ratios in environmental samples
A high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric (HR-ICP-MS) method for the determination of plutonium isotopes and the 240Pu/239Pu isotope ratio utilising ultrasonic nebulisation was developed. Total plutonium concentrations (239+240Pu) measured in environmental samples by this HR-ICP-MS method were in good agreement with data obtained from α-spectrometry.
Quantification was performed by both external calibration and isotope dilution and the best agreement was found by applying isotope dilution. Detection limits of 5, 1 and 1 fg ml–1 were found for 239Pu, 240Pu and 242Pu, respectively. These represent total amounts of 50, 10 and 10 fg or 0.1, 0.08 and 0.002 mBq of the three isotopes in a 10 ml sample volume.
The precision (RSD) on the measurement of the 240Pu/239Pu ratio in environmental samples was approximately 2%, which is close to the theoretical precision (Poisson statistics). The influence of dwell time, number of sweeps and sample uptake rate on the measurement precision of the 240Pu/239Pu isotope ratio was investigated and the parameters were optimised using a 23 experimental design (a central composite design followed by a ridge analysis).
The accuracy of the isotope ratio measurement was evaluated by comparing results from this HR-ICP-MS method with results from high resolution α-spectrometry and spectral deconvolution. Good agreement was found between the two techniques.
Language: | English |
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Year: | 1998 |
Pages: | 1321-1326 |
ISSN: | 13645544 and 02679477 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1039/a806408c |
ORCIDs: | 0000-0002-6856-9207 |