ASSESSMENT OF THE DETERMINATION OF (79)SELENIUM USING DOUBLE-FOCUSINGSECTOR FIELD ICP-MS AFTER HYDRIDE GENERATION

In addition to radioanalytical techniques, ICP-MS is a powerful method allowing fast and reliable determination of (ultra-)trace elements wh ich has found increased applications in the determination of long-live d radionuclides. A method is described for the determination of traces of the long-lived radionuclide Se-79 using a double-focusing sector f ield ICP-RIS (operated in the low resolution mode). For sample introdu ction, hydride generation with a specially designed device was used. T he possible interferences of the mass spectrometric determination of S e-79 such as Br-79(+), Gd-158(2+), (CuO+)-Cu-63-O-16, (ArArH+)-Ar-38-A r-40 and the reduction and elimination of interfering ion species are discussed. Based on measurements of stable Se nuclides, the limit of d etection (LOD) (without pre-concentration) for Se-79 can be estimated to 0.1 mu g/L, with a precision better than 10% relative standard devi ation (RSD).