Method for determination of radium in seawater using MnO₂ co-precipitation technique

Radium is considered to be a useful tracer for studying various physical processes of seawater. There are several methods for analysis of radium; however, analysis of radium in seawater by those analytical techniques is a tedious job. Thus a new methodology was optimized for analysis of radium in sea water using MnO₂ co-precipitation followed by gamma spectrometry. The method produced good yield which ranged from 85-98%. The method is simple and requires less amounts of chemicals and no use of acids. Seawater from different western Indian coastal environments viz. Tarapur, Mumbai and Goa were collected and analysed for ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra using this method. (author)