Preparation and characterization of MnO2- SiO2 composite resin for 226Ra pre-concentration in water samples

Silvia Dulanská; Michaela Štofaníková; Ľubomír Mátel; Ivan Novák; Ondrej Šauša; Igor Maťko; Sabína Zvachová

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.06.019

Preparation and characterization of MnO₂- SiO₂ composite resin for ²²⁶Ra pre-concentration in water samples

Appl Radiat Isot. 2018 Oct:140:96-101. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.06.019. Epub 2018 Jun 26.

Authors

Silvia Dulanská¹, Michaela Štofaníková², Ľubomír Mátel², Ivan Novák³, Ondrej Šauša³, Igor Maťko³, Sabína Zvachová²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska Dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia. Electronic address: dulanska@fns.uniba.sk.
² Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska Dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
³ Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 11 Bratislava 45, Slovakia.

PMID: 29990687
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.06.019

Abstract

The presented work describes an effective method for ²²⁶Ra determination using laboratory- prepared MnO₂-SiO₂ composite resin. Samples were traced with ¹³³Ba for radium radiochemical recoveries monitoring which were in the range of (77 - 100%). MnO₂- SiO₂ composite resin was used to collect for ²²⁶Ra from water samples (pH = 6.5-7.0). Radium was eluted from the column with 50 mL of 4 mol L^-1 HNO₃ at a flow rate of 1.5 mL min^-1. Alpha-spectrometric counting of Ba(Ra)SO₄ microprecipitate was used for ²²⁶Ra determination. The new developed method was used to the ²²⁶Ra determination in samples of natural mineral, mountain spring, drinking and natural healing waters from Slovakia and Czech Republic.

Keywords: (226)Ra determination; MnO(2)- SiO(2) composite resin; Water analysis.