Simultaneous determination of silicon and aluminium in ferrosilicon by instrumental neutron activation analysis with the aid of an Ac-Be isotopic neutron source

A method has been developed for the accurate determination of silicon and aluminium by instrumental neutron activation analysis with the aid of an²²⁷Ac-Be isotopic neutron source. The samples are pellets made of 4.6 g of ferrosilicon and 0.9 g of a pelletizing agent. Each pellet is irradiated twice at two different fast-to-thermal neutron flux ratios. Each irradiation is followed by two integral mode countings. This allows correction for manganese activities and calculation of the fraction of the aluminium activity induced in silicon and aluminium. The method has been tested with laboratory-prepared synthetic samples as well as commercially certified ferrosilicon. For ferrosilicon containing 75% Si, a relative precision of 0.7% for the results of the silicon concentration has been obtained. For aluminium the relative precision varied from 2 to 7% for concentrations of 3.5 to 1.5%.