Analysis of solid uranium particulates on cotton swipes with an automated microextraction-ICP-MS system

Abstract

An automated microextraction method coupled to an inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) was developed for the direct analysis of solid uranium particulates on the surface of cotton swipes....

Microextraction–TQ–ICP–MS for the Direct Analysis of U and Pu from Cotton Swipes

“…The Plate Express was re-engineered in-house at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with an automated X – Y stage and a camera. The modifications to the original Plate Express have previously been described . The experimental setup can be seen in Figure .…”

“…The modifications to the original Plate Express have previously been described. 35 The experimental setup can be seen in Figure 1. The swipe was placed in a polyether ether ketone (PEEK) sample holder on top of a square of Teflon.…”

“…In the present study, CRC technology was employed to measure Pu and U isotope ratios from a transient signal fromdoped cotton swipes, similar to those used to collect environmental samples during safeguards inspections of nuclear facilities. ,,, A microextraction system, which was originally developed for direct liquid extraction of thin-tissue samples and thin-layer chromatography plates, has recently been explored to directly sample the surface of a cotton swipe to measure U and Pu isotope ratios. − The method has been shown to be capable of measuring Pu isotope ratios in the presence of U using sector field (SF) ICP–MS, but with data correction steps (e.g., hydrides, tailing, etc.) .…”

Direct, multielement determinations from cotton swipes via plate express microextraction coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (μEx-ICP-MS)

“…A collaboration between this laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) introduced a simple method of extracting solution residues and particulates from standard cotton swipes for the determination of uranium and plutonium isotope ratios. 32 The approach was based on the use of the Advion (Ithaca, NY) plate express as a means of solutionmicroextraction from a cloth substrate and transporting the eluate rst to a liquid sampling-atmospheric pressure glow discharge (LS-APGD) microplasma ionization source, 32 and more recently to ICP sources, [33][34][35][36] for MS detection. The device was originally designed as a means of extracting organic species from thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates, 37,38 for their transport to electrospray ionization (ESI) sources for qualitative analysis.…”

“…Following the initial demonstration with the LS-APGD/Orbitrap coupling, more extensive reports from Manard and co-workers have described the performance of the swipe sampling methodology towards U and Pu isotopic analysis on a variety of ICP-MS instrument platforms. [33][34][35][36] The microextraction with plasma MS detection has proven to be simple and quantitative, requiring virtually zero sample preparation, with LODs, precision, and sensitivity that is quite sufficient for most U/Pu nuclear forensics applications.…”