Preconcentration of traces of rhenium in geological matrix by NAA

A simple preconcentration approach for quantitative separation and determination of traces of rhenium in geological matrix using neutron activation analysis is presented in this work. Anionic species of rhenium were collected on small amounts of anion-exchange resin beads from a large-size geological sample solution followed by neutron irradiation of the resin beads and measurements of rhenium activity for its quantification. ∼200 mg of resin beads were used to concentrate rhenium from 0.5 to 5 gram of the borehole samples. Radioactive tracers of the analyte directly and in the presence of the matrix were used to establish the separation process. During the present work the detection limit of rhenium was found to be 10 ng/g.