Radiochemical scheme for the quantitative isolation and gamma-spectrometric determination of La,Ga, Hf and Sc in neutron activation analysis of refractory materials

A new radiochemical scheme for the quantitative isolation of Ga, Sc, Hf and La, based on ion exchange and extraction chromatography, was devised, Ga and Sc were selectively retained on a Dowex 50WX2 H⁺] column from 10 M HBr at 50°C. Ga was then eluted with ethyl acetate 0.25M in HBr, and scandium with 4M HBr. Hf was separated from 10M HBr at 75°C on a Kel-F column impregnated with tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO). The lanthamm fraction, after evaporation to dryness, was purified by ion-exchange chromatography in the system: Dowex 50WX8 H⁺]−HCl. The effect of accompanying elements, and also the differences in the mechanism of uptake by the resin of various elements from concentrated HBr solution are briefly discussed. The scheme has been used for the determination of these four elements in refractory materials by activation analysis. As this procedure assured practically quantitative isolation of Ga, Sc, Hf and La, the addition of carriers and determination of chemical yield were unnecessary. The radiochemical purities of the respective fractions were as a rule high, and the measurements were performed by NaI(Tl) spectrometry. The detection limits were of the order of fractions of ppm, and could be considerably improved if necessary by increasing the counting time and sample weight.