Determination of chromium, cobalt and nickel in tissue samples by radiochemical activation analysis

A radiochemical neutron activation analysis method for the determination of chromium, cobalt and nickel in tissue samples. A radiochemical neutron activation analysis method for the determination of chromium, cobalt and nickel has been developed. The destruction device used consisted of a combined wet-ashing-distillation and ion-exchange system. Six samples could be treated at the same time. The samples were wet-ashed with H*L2SO*L4-H*L2O*L2 mixture. Volatile elements were distilled as bromide compounds with HBr*H-. The distillation residue in 8M HCl was passed through hydrated antimony pentoxide (HAP) in order to remove disturbing *H2*H4Na-activity and through a Dowex 2 x 8 column so as to retain *H6*H0Co (formed from *H5*H8Ni). Chromium was elutriated from the column and precipitated as Cr(OH)*L3 for the removal of disturbing *H3*H2P-activity. The standards and samples were treated in a similar manner each so that the yield determination is not necessarily needed. The yields by tracer experiments were (43 +- 5) % for Cr, (93 +- 4) % for Co and (88 +- 14) % for Ni. The precision and accuracy of the method were studied by using reference materials of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)