A simple co-precipitation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric method for the determination of uranium in seawater

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used in the deter mination of (238)uranium in seawater after concentration by a simplified co -precipitation with iron hydroxide, Ocean water and reference seawater were used in the study. The co-precipitation method required a smaller sample v olume (10 fold less), and less column separation to recover the uranium fro m the seawater matrix, compared to the original iron hydroxide method. The direct seawater dilution technique requires only a small seawater volume (0 .5 mt) and offers a rapid, reliable method for uranium analysis in seawater compared to traditional methods. Comparison of the results for simple co-p recipitation, direct dilution of seawater, and theoretical uranium values b ased on salinity concentrations, yielded negligible differences. Data from this work show that the certified value for NASS-4 is low.