The determination of fluorine in bone by fast neutron activation analysis

A routine method is presented for the determination of fluorine in small bone samples by activation analysis with fast conversion neutrons. Both the purely instrumental determination and the analysis by chemical separation are discussed. The activations are performed with the AVF cyclotron of Philips-Duphar at Petten. Use was made of a rabbit system equipped with a Be-target, which can be inserted in the internally deflected beam of the cyclotron. The sensitivity of the instrumental method is ≈1 μg. Application of chemical isolation results in a sensitivity of ≈0.1 μg.