Determination of trace amounts of cadmium, cobalt, chromium, iron, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, titanium, vanadium and zinc in blood and milk by neutron activation analysis

The concentrations of Cd, Co, Cr, Fe, Mo, Ni, Se, Ti, V and Zn in biological fluids, human blood serum and market milk were determined by neutron activation analysis, with enrichment by coprecipitation. The pre-concentration of these trace elements was accomplished by converting the dissolved trace metal ions into their pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (1-pyrrolidinecarbodithioate) chelates, followed by coprecipitation with a metal carrier such as Ni, Pb or Bi. The coprecipitation was carried out prior to irradiation for the short-lived nuclides (V, Ti and Se) and after irradiation for the other elements. The validity of the method was checked using certified biological reference materials; the concentrations of trace elements found by the proposed method agreed well with the published certified data. The limits of detection for Cd, Co, Cr, Fe, Mo, Ni, Se (obtained through the long-lived isotope 75Se) and Zn under the present experimental conditions were found to be 5, 5, 10, 520, 5, 70, 10 and 150 ng, respectively, for 5 ml of biological liquor. The limits of detection for Ti and V obtained (through their short-lived radionuclides 51Ti and 52V, respectively) were found to be 180 and 1.4 ng, respectively, for 50 ml of market milk, or 70 and 0.7 ng for 1 ml of blood serum.