PNNL

Abstract

Polonium-210 is a radioactive isotope often used to study sedimentation processes, food chains, aerosol behavior, and atmospheric circulations related to environmental sciences. Materials for the analysis of Po-210 range from tobacco leaves or cotton fibers, to soils and sediments. The purpose of this work was to determine polonium losses from a variety of sample types (soil, cotton fiber, and air filter) due to digestion technique, chemical separation, and deposition method for alpha energy analysis. Results demonstrated that yields from a perchloric acid wet-ash were similar to that from a microwave digestion. Both were greater than the dry-ash procedure. The polonium yield from the perchloric acid wet ash was 87 ± 5%, the microwave digestion had a yield of 100 ± 7%, and the dry ash had a yield of 38 ± 5%. The chemical separation of polonium by an anion exchange resin was used only on the soil samples due to the complex nature of this sample. The yield of Po-209 tracer after chemical separation and deposition for alpha analysis was 83 ± 7% for the soil samples. Spontaneous deposition yields for the cotton and air filters were 87 ± 4% and 92 ± 6%, respectively. Based on the overall process yields for each sample type the amount of Po-210 was quantified using alpha energy analysis. The soil contained 0.18 ± 0.08 Bq/g, the cotton swipe contained 0.7 mBq/g, and the air filter contained 0.04 ± 0.02 mBq/g. High and robust yields of polonium are possible using a suitable digestion, separation, and deposition method.