Abstract:
229Th spike is usually performed to determine the concentration of
232Th and
230Th in evironmental samples. In this paper, a robust procedure was employed using tandem columns of anion resin for milking high purity
229Th from
233U bulk solution. Considering the chemical yields of
232Th and
238U approximately 100%, the procedure of separating Th and U istopes was reliable to prepare
229Th spike. A custom-made natural thourim standard solution was used for the reverse isotope dilution measurement and multi-collector ICP-MS was employed to measure the concentration and purity of
229Th spike. The accurate and reliable determination shows that the concentration of
229Th is 1.959×10
-9(1±0.5%) g/g, the relative standard isotope ratio of
230Th and 229Th is 3.322×10
-3. The uncertainty results suggest that the prepared
229Th spike may be suitable to thorium isotopes measurement in environment samples.