Speaker
Description
Copper is a material that finds a wide range of use as it usually has a high purity in terms of contamination regards to Th and U, this feature makes it suitable for nuclear physics experiments where a very low degree of contaminations is required to obtain low background. Given high purity of copper, mass spectrometry analysis performed by dilution is a bad way because it would be very difficult to estimate contaminations; matrix extraction is a procedure very useful to concentrate chemical elements that need to be measured.
TRU column is a good tool to perform matrix extraction of trans-uranic elements, they’re composed by chromatographic resins based on CMPO (octylphenyl-N, N-di-isobutyl carboamyle phosphine oxide) extractant diluted in TBP (tributyl phosphate). A process of conditions is necessary to reach low values (10-12g – 10-15g) in terms of concentration related to Th and U, alternated rinsing with HNO3 and (NH4)2C2O4 were performed.
High Resolution Inductively Plasma Mass Spectrometry were adopted to characterize contaminations in many type of samples including copper, a procedure of mineralization is necessary to obtain an aqueous solution suitable to be measured; importance to check amount of 232Th and 238U is related to estimate natural radiation, low background in apparatus located in underground is achieved also with high purity of materials used during installation of experiments.
