Epithermal instrumental neutron activation analysis in conjunction with anti-coincidence gamma-ray spectrometry for investigating iodine levels in Canadian foods

Abstract

In order to reduce interferences from high activities of 24Na, 56Mn, 82Br, and 38Cl as well as to improve detection limits, precision, and accuracy of measuring iodine levels in biological materials, foods and diets in particular, an epithermal instrumental neutron activation analysis (EINAA) method in conjunction with anti-coincidence (EINAA-AC) gamma-ray spectrometry was employed. The Compton scattering background in the region of the 442.9-keV photopeak of 128I was significantly suppressed by anti-coincidence counting. In order to validate the EINAA-AC method as well as to evaluate its broad applicability to diverse types of biological material, 17 NIST and IAEA reference materials containing very low to high levels of iodine as well as interfering elements were analyzed by the EINAA-AC method. The samples were irradiated in the cadmium-lined pneumatic site at a neutron flux of 2 × 1011 cm−2 s−1 of the Dalhousie University SLOWPOKE-2 Reactor (DUSR) facility for 10 or 20 min followed by 1-min decay and 30-min counting. The detection limit for iodine by EINAA-AC was improved by a factor of 2–5 compared to EINAA depending on the sample matrix and other factors, and a limit of 3–5 μg kg−1 was achieved for low-salt foods. We found the RSD to be about ±5 % above 200, increasing to ±10 % at 20, and then to greater than ±30 % at about 5 μg kg−1 iodine levels.