Smart thorium and uranium determination exploiting renewable solid-phase extraction applied to environmental samples in a wide concentration range

Abstract

A smart fully automated system is proposed for determination of thorium and uranium in a wide concentration range, reaching environmental levels. The hyphenation of lab-on-valve (LOV) and multisyringe flow injection analysis (MSFIA), coupled to a long path length liquid waveguide capillary cell, allows the spectrophotometric determination of thorium and uranium in different types of environmental sample matrices achieving high selectivity and sensitivity levels. Online separation and preconcentration of thorium and uranium is carried out by means of Uranium and TEtraValents Actinides resin. The potential of the LOV-MSFIA makes possible the full automation of the system by the in-line regeneration of the column and its combination with a smart methodology is a step forward in automation. After elution, thorium(IV) and uranium(VI) are spectrophotometrically detected after reaction with arsenazo-III. We propose a rapid, inexpensive, and fully automated method to determine thorium(IV) and uranium(VI) in a wide concentration range (0-1,200 and 0-2,000 μg L(-1) Th and U, respectively). Limits of detection reached are 5.9 ηg L(-1) of uranium and 60 ηg L(-1) of thorium. Different water sample matrices (seawater, well water, freshwater, tap water, and mineral water), and a channel sediment reference material which contained thorium and uranium were satisfactorily analyzed with the proposed method.