Quantification of lithium at ppm level in geological samples using nuclear reaction analysis

Nathaly De La Rosa; Per Kristiansson; E J Charlotta Nilsson; Linus Ros; Jan Pallon; Henrik Skogby

doi:10.1007/s10967-018-5907-0

Quantification of lithium at ppm level in geological samples using nuclear reaction analysis

J Radioanal Nucl Chem. 2018;317(1):253-259. doi: 10.1007/s10967-018-5907-0. Epub 2018 May 28.

Authors

Nathaly De La Rosa¹, Per Kristiansson¹, E J Charlotta Nilsson¹, Linus Ros¹, Jan Pallon¹, Henrik Skogby²

Affiliations

¹ 1Division of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics, Lund University, Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
² 2Department of Geosciences, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

Proton-induced reaction (p,α) is one type of nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) suitable especially for light element quantification. In the case of lithium quantification presented in this work, accelerated protons with an energy about of 850 keV were used to induce the ⁷Li(p,α)⁴He reaction in standard reference and geological samples such as tourmaline and other Li-minerals. It is shown that this technique for lithium quantification allowed for measurement of concentrations down below one ppm. The possibility to relate the lithium content with the boron content in a single analysis was also demonstrated using tourmaline samples, both in absolute concentration and in lateral distribution. In addition, Particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) was utilized as a complementary IBA technique for simultaneous mapping of elements heavier than sodium.

Keywords: Double-sided silicon strip detector (DSSSD); Geological samples; Lithium quantification; Nuclear reaction analysis (NRA); Particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE).