Thin film-XRF determination of uranium following thin-film solid phase extraction

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.

uranium; thin film; X-ray florescence; preconcentration