Determination of Niobium by Photon-Activation Analysis Based on Internal-Reference Method

Abstract

The internal-reference method proposed previously has been applied to the photon-activation analysis of niobium using molybdenum as the reference element. For the determination of niobium, 92mNb produced by the (γ,n) reaction was utilized and 95mNb or 96Nb activities coming from molybdenum by the (γ,p) processes were used as reference. A series of molybdenum and niobium mixtures with known compositions were irradiated by bremsstrahlung photons with a maximum energy of 17 MeV for an hour. After niobium activities were separated chemically, their γ-ray spectra were measured with a lithium-drifted germanium detector. A good proportionality was obtained between the activity ratio, RA0, and the weight ratio, RW. Niobium down to 5μg can be determined with a relative error within ±3% under the present experimental conditions.

Nonferrous Metallurgy - II. Zirconium, Hafnium, Vanadium, Niobium, Tantalum, Chromium, Molybdenum, and Tungsten

“…Proton activation methods for the determination of Nb provide detection limits in the neighborhood of 50 ppm (131, 132, 419). Photoactivation techniques have also been studied for the determination of Nb (208,476) and 50 µg could be determined within ±3% relative (476). Several fluorimetric methods are described for the determination of Nb and Ta (73,316,503,504,743,744).…”