Aa. Ekechukwu et al., Ion chromatography separation of alkali, alkaline earth, transition, posttransition, lanthanide, and actinide metal cations in waste sludge, LC GC, 17(9), 1999, pp. 842
Trace radionuclides are present in concentrations of only a few hundred dis
integrations-per-minute-per-milliliter in high-level radioactive waste samp
les. These radionuclides can be separated and analyzed using liquid scintil
lation counting and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The autho
rs developed an ion chromatography method to separate 31 cations in a singl
e chromatographic run, Their method uses a linear gradient, a step gradient
, and isocratic elution using four eluents in four separate eluent phases.
The separation requires 45 min and has detection limits ranging from 0.1 to
5.0 ppm using spectro photometric detection for nonradioactive cations, Th
is article presents the applications, limitations, interferences, precision
, and accuracy of this method.