Trace determination of uranium in fertilizer samples by total reflection X-ray fluorescence

Pramana

N L Misra1²  I Varga3¹  G S Lodha³  Sangita Dhara²  Arijeet Das³  S K Aggarwal² 

[1] Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Chemistry, H-1518 Budapest, Hungary$$;Fuel Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai 400 085, India$$;X-ray Optics Section, Raja Ramanna Centre of Advanced Technology, Indore, 452 013, India$$

关键词: Phosphate fertilizers;    trace elements;    total reflection X-ray fluorescence;    solvent extraction.;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：物理（综合）

来源: Indian Academy of Sciences

【 摘 要 】

Uranium is reported to be present in phosphate fertilizers. The recovery of uranium from the fertilizers is important because it can be used as fuel in nuclear reactors and also because of environmental concerns. For both these activities suitable method of uranium determinations at trace levels in these fertilizers are required. Studies have been initiated for such TXRF determination of uranium and the results are reported in the present paper. For TXRF determinations the fertilizer samples were processed with nitric acid and the uranium present in it was removed by solvent extraction using tri-n-butyl phosphate as the extractant. The organic phase containing uranium was equilibrated with 1.5% suprapure nitric acid to bring out uranium in aqueous phase. This aqueous phase was mixed with internal standard Y and the TXRF spectra were measured by depositing samples on float glass supports. The amounts of uranium in four fertilizer samples of Hungarian origin were determined by processing these TXRF spectra. Uranium concentrations in two fertilizer samples were found to be in the range of 4–6 𝜇 𝑔/𝑔, whereas two fertilizer samples did not show the presence of uranium. The precision of the TXRF determination of uranium was found to be better than 8 % (1𝜎).

【 授权许可】

Unknown