A half automated, non time consuming radiochemical separation scheme for determination of 25 trace elements in biological specimens

A radiochemical separation scheme for the determination of 25 neutron activated trace elements in biological soft tissue is presented. It is specially developed for the analysis of small amounts of white blood cells (1-15 mg of freeze-dried material) and permits the determination of 25 neutron activated trace elements by means of a 5'' X 6'' NaI well-type detector. The scheme includes wet ashing and 16 different organic and inorganic ion exchangers. The procedure is semiautomated. A description for manufacturing the non commercial exchangers is given. Precision of the scheme is determined for each single element as well as for a mixture of all elements together. The total time needed for one separation amounts to three hours, including wet ashing and transfer of the column fillings in polyethylene tubes. Simultaneous processing of four samples takes 4.5 hours. (T.G.)