Measuring (210) Pb by accelerator mass spectrometry: a study of isobaric interferences of (204,205,208) Pb and (210) Pb.

Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom

A. E. Lalonde AMS Laboratory and Department of Physics, University of Ottawa, 25 Templeton Ave, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada.

Published: April 2016

Rationale: The measurement of (210) Pb provides an assessment of the risk an individual faces of developing lung cancer as a result of their exposure to radon and radon decay products. Existing radiometric techniques are not sensitive enough to detect (210) Pb in many exposures. This report describes the further development of a method of measuring (210) Pb using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS).

Methods: (204,205,208,) (210) Pb measurements were performed by AMS. Samples were prepared from stock solutions of (204) Pb, (205) Pb, (208) Pb and (210) Pb and measured by making PbF3 (-) ions at the IsoTrace AMS facility using a SIMS-type Cs(+) sputter source. Potential interferences in Pb(3) (+) isotope measurement and the overall efficiency of Pb beam production were determined experimentally.

Results: (204) Pb and (205) Pb suffer from molecular and atomic isobaric interferences that cannot be removed without sacrificing the efficiency of (210) Pb measurements whereas (208) Pb suffers from no interferences. The abundance sensitivity of (210) Pb/(208) Pb was 1.3 × 10(-12) . Keeping the (210) Pb/(208) Pb spike below this level resulted in a detection limit of 4.4 mBq of (210) Pb using the IsoTrace AMS facility.

Conclusions: This study identified key interferences in the measurement of PbF3 (-) → Pb(3) (+) ions and demonstrated a new AMS method to measure (210) Pb. This new AMS technique is about five times more sensitive than gamma and beta spectroscopy measurements of (210) Pb and the measurement time is much shorter. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rcm.7501DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

0
12
measuring 210
8
210 accelerator
8
accelerator mass
8
mass spectrometry
8
isobaric interferences
8
204205208 210
8
210 measurements
8
204 205
8
isotrace ams
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!