Determination of bromine and iodine in biological and environmental materials using epithermal neutron activation analysis

Epithermal neutron activation analysis (ENAA) was applied to the determination of the contents of bromine and iodine in 40 biological and environmental standard reference materials and Chinese diets. Boron nitride (BN) for solid samples and BN+Cd for liquid samples were adopted as shield material. Irradiation was carried out in inner and outer irradiation sites in a Miniature Source Reactor (MNSR) for solid and liquid samples, respectively. The 443 keV photopeak of ¹²⁸I and the 616 keV photopeak of ⁸⁰Br were used. The precision of measurement (relative standard deviation) is 2∼6% for contents of iodine of more than 100 ng/g and 8∼12% in the 20∼100 ng/g range in solid samples, and 12∼18% at less than 100 ng/ml in liquid samples. For bromine, the precision of measurement is 2–8% for solid samples and lower than 13% for liquid samples. The detection limits under experimental conditions varied between 10∼30 ng/g, 55∼95 ng/g and 25∼68 ng/g for iodine and 50∼150 ng/g, 200∼450 ng/g and 100∼300 ng/g for bromine in ENAA with BN shield in inner irradiation sites, with Cd shield and BN+Cd shield in outer irradiation sites, respectively. Received: 13 June 1996 / Revised: 2 September 1996 / Accepted: 19 September 1996