Jh. Aldstadt et al., DETERMINATION OF URANIUM BY FLOW-INJECTION INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY, Analytica chimica acta, 319(1-2), 1996, pp. 135-143
A flow injection (FI) system for the on-line determination of uranium
in environmental samples has been characterized and tested. The simple
Fl manifold uses off-the-shelf components to precisely manipulate the
carrier, sample, eluent, and washing streams through a column separat
ion module. The separation module preconcentrates the sample by a fact
or of 30 and removes the potentially interfering environmental matrix.
TRU(TM), a commercially available resin for extraction chromatography
, is packed into a glass separation column (5 X 50 mm) in the limited
dispersion (D = 2.8) FI system. Detection is performed by using induct
ively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Results are presented
for the U-238 in groundwater samples. The total analysis time for eac
h 5.0-ml aqueous sample is 6 min. The determination of detection limit
for U-238 is 0.30 ng/l. By using certified groundwater samples, a pre
cision of 1.1% (n = 4) and accuracy of +/-1.8% for U-238 at 62.6 ng/l
were observed. We also report the design and preliminary testing of a
second FI-ICP-MS system that minimizes the influence of polyatomic ion
s (e.g., (UH+)-U-238) On the determination of minor actinides (e.g., P
u-239(+)) by ICP-MS.