Determination of uranium in natural waters and high-purity aluminum by flow-injection on-line preconcentration and ICP-MS detection

Abstract

A flow injection method has been developed for the determination of uranium in natural waters and high-purity aluminum by use of on-line preconcentration on a U/TEVA™ column and ICP-MS detection. The sample solution prepared as a nitric acid solution in 3 mol l-1 was passed through the U/TEVA™ column to collect uranium and uranium adsorbed was eluted with 0.1 mol l-1 nitric acid. The effluent was introduced directly into the nebulizer of the ICP-MS and 238U was measured. The detection limit, calculated as 3-times the standard deviation of the background noise, was 3 pg and the sample throughput was about 10 per hour. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of uranium in river-water reference materials, a seawater reference material and high-purity aluminum reference materials.