L. Pujol et Ja. Sanchezcabeza, ROLE OF QUENCHING ON ALPHA BETA SEPARATION IN LIQUID SCINTILLATION-COUNTING FOR SEVERAL HIGH-CAPACITY COCKTAILS/, Analyst, 122(4), 1997, pp. 383-385
The optimization of alpha/beta separation in liquid scintillation usin
g pulse shape analysis is convenient for the simultaneous determinatio
n of alpha and beta emitters in natural water and other samples, In th
is work, alpha/beta separation was studied for different scintillant/v
ial combinations and it was observed that both the optimum pulse shape
discrimination level and the total interference value (that is, the s
ummed relative interference between alpha and beta spectra) were depen
dent on the sample quenching and independent of the scintillant/vial c
ombination. These results provide a simple method for modifying the co
unting configuration, such as a change in the cocktail, vial or sample
characteristics, without the need to perform exhaustive parameter opt
imizations, Also, it was observed that, for our counting conditions, t
he combination of Ultima Gold AB scintillation cocktail with Zinsser l
ow diffusion vials presented the lowest total interference, namely 0.9
4 +/- 0.28%, which is insignificant for the counting of environmental
samples.