Influence of Ba concentration on Ra and 210Pb extraction from aqueous samples using EMPORE® radium RAD disks

Abstract

The separation procedure for Ra isotopes and 210Pb from water using the EMPORE™ radium RAD disks is very quick and convenient. However, higher levels of the chemically similar Ba in the water at least partly prohibit the uptake of Ra and 210Pb, hampering the correct determination of these radionuclides. This investigation shows that the decrease of extraction yield in dependence of the Ba mass is much slower for Ra than for 210Pb: With a Ba content ≤ 1 mg in the water sample, 226Ra could be separated completely, 210Pb, however, showed a decreasing recovery already at 0.1 mg Ba addition.