A sensitive method to determine 210Po and 210Pb in environmental samples by alpha spectrometry using CuS micro-precipitation

Stephanie Walsh; Matthew J Bond; Nicolas Guérin; Jules M Blais; David J Rowan

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-46230-9

A sensitive method to determine ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb in environmental samples by alpha spectrometry using CuS micro-precipitation

Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 13;13(1):19754. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-46230-9.

Authors

Stephanie Walsh¹, Matthew J Bond², Nicolas Guérin², Jules M Blais³, David J Rowan²

Affiliations

¹ Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, ON, K0J 1J0, Canada. Stephanie.Walsh@cnl.ca.
² Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, ON, K0J 1J0, Canada.
³ Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.

Abstract

A new sensitive method to determine polonium-210 (²¹⁰Po) and lead-210 (²¹⁰Pb) in a diversity of environmental samples was developed. For fresh and marine waters, Po was pre-concentrated using a titanium (III) hydroxide (Ti(OH)₃) co-precipitation. Solid environmental samples were digested with nitric acid (HNO₃) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). The alpha thin layer source was prepared using CuS micro-precipitation and ²¹⁰Po was measured by alpha spectrometry. Lead-210 was left to decay for up to a year and indirectly measured via its progeny, ²¹⁰Po. The chemical recoveries for ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb were high, 90% and 97%, respectively, for a large variety of samples and a very low minimum detectable activity (MDA) was obtained. The method was validated using standardized solutions and certified reference materials.