Simple measurement of C-14 in the environment using a gel suspension method

A simple analytical method for environmental C-14 With a low background liq uid scintillation counter was developed. We used a new gelling agent, N-lau royl-L-glutamic-alpha,gamma-dibutylamide, for the liquid scintillation coun ting of C-14 as CaCO3 (gel suspension method). Our procedure for sample pre paration was much simpler than that of conventional methods and required no special equipment. The samples prepared with the standard sample of CaCO3 were measured to evaluate the self absorption of the sample, the optimum co ndition of counting and the detection limit. Our results indicated that the newly developed technique could be efficiently applied for the monitoring of environmental C-14.