Use of gold as monostandard for the determination of elemental concentrations in environmental SRMs and Ganga river sediments by the k0 method

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) using the k0 method by employing gold as monostandard has been used for the determination of 18 elements (As, Ba, Br, Cl, Cr, Co, Cs, Dy, Fe, Hf, Ga, In, La, Mn, Na, Rb, Sc and Th) in standard reference materials (SRMs) of environmental origin and four sediment samples collected from the Ganga river in northern parts of India. Data obtained for SRMs agree within ±5-10% with the certified values for most elements. Merits and demerits of the k0 method are discussed. An attempt has been made to identify the sources of heavy metal pollutants in the sediment samples and study the mobility pattern for toxic heavy metals originating from the tanneries along with the river flow