Thin Film-XRF Determination of Uranium Following Thin-Film Solid Phase Extraction

Jalal Hassan,Mohammad H Karbasi,Babak Jahanparast,Seyed M Hosseini,Shahla Mozaffari

doi:10.5935/0103-5053.20140083

Jalal Hassan, Mohammad H Karbasi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5935/0103-5053.20140083

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Abstract

A sensitive method based on the preconcentration of uranium on modified filter paper (thin film) has been developed to determinate this element in water and soil samples by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence. Uranium (VI) extraction from nitric acid medium by trioctyl phosphine (TOPO) from 100 mL of sample was carried out. The effects of nitric acid concentration, TOPO concentration and sample breakthrough on uranium extraction were investigated in this study. The proposed method provided good linearity from 7 to 1000 µg and the limit of detection (LOD), based on a signal-to noise ratio (S/N) of 3, was 2.5 µg.

Highlights

Uranium is an element that naturally presents various oxidation states, but uranium appears mostly in its hexavalent form
A convenient aliquot of solution (50 mL) containing 8.0 mg L–1 uranium (VI) and 2.0 mol L–1 nitric acid was passed through modified filter paper
The filter paper analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrophotometry (XRF) and the filtrate were analyzed by the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and the concentration of uranium was determined

Summary

Introduction

Uranium is an element that naturally presents various oxidation states (namely +2, +3, +4, +5 and +6), but uranium appears mostly in its hexavalent form. Uranium is associated with oxygen, forming the uranyl ion UO22+. Uranium has an average concentration of 4 μg g−1 and, in order of magnitude, is more abundant than other heavy metals, such as mercury and silver.[1] The growing exploitation and use of uranium in recent decades has attracted the concern of the analytical community because it is an inorganic pollutant that spreads in the environment and presents both chemical and radiological effects to living beings. There is an increasing need for the development of simple and quick methods for the monitoring of this element in the environment.

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