Radiochemical separation and determination of platinum,gold and palladium in complex matrices employing substoichiometric thermal neutron activation analysis

A radiochemical separation method has been developed for the separation of platinum, gold and palladium from various matrices by thermal neutron activation analysis and employing substoichiometric extractions of Pt and Au with 2-mercaptobenzothiazole and Pd with isonitrosobenzoylacetone. Decontamination factors for the individual elements after separation was also studied and was found to be greater than 10⁵ for most of the elements.