PIXE Analysis of Trace Heavy-Metals in River Waters Using an Ion-Exchange Cellulose Filter Paper

Abstract

A simple but precise method for the PIXE analysis of trace heavy-metals in aqueous samples was developed, in which the PIXE targets were prepared by pre-concentrating heavy metals on a cellulose phosphate ion-exchange filter paper and no additional chemical treatment was required. Heavy metals in trace concentrations were quantitatively retained up to 16.7 μ-equivalent on a sheet of filter paper due to the excellent selectivity for heavy metals and ion-exchange kinetics of phosphate groups in cellulose matrix. Heavy metals of less than 1 μg on one filter paper are precisely and rapidly determined by PIXE analysis using 3-MeV proton beams. The present method is compared with the method preparing a PIXE target for each dissolved species of an element contained in aqueous samples. It will be resulted that the newly developed method enables an on-line PIXE analysis for river waters.