Determination of boron, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in nickel by charged particle activation analysis

Summary The determination of boron, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in nickel by charged particle activation using the reactions ¹⁰B(d, n)¹¹C, ¹²C(d, n)¹³N, ¹⁴N(p, )¹¹C and ¹⁶O(³He, p)¹⁸F is studied. The interference of ¹¹B(p, n)¹¹C with the ¹⁴N(p, )¹¹C reaction is taken into account. ¹¹C, ¹³N and ¹⁸F are separated by oxygen combustion followed by trapping of ¹¹CO₂ in NaOH and by steam distillation of ¹³NH₃ and of H₂Si¹⁸F₆, respectively. The results obtained were 0.129±0.035 g g^–1 for boron, 86.4±8.3 g g^–1 for carbon, 1.077±0.037 g g^–1 for nitrogen and 8.91±1.00 g g^–1 for oxygen. The results for nitrogen and oxygen agreed satisfactorily with those of other analytical methods.Grateful acknowledgement is made to Prof. J. Hoste for his interest shown in this work, to J. Pauwels (B.C.M.N., Geel) for providing the samples, to B. F. Schmitt (Bundesanstalt für Materialprüfung, Berlin) for helpful information concerning the radiochemical separation of ¹¹C and to the NFWO and the IIKW for financial support.