Rapid and accurate determination of barium by instrumental neutron activation analysis

Barium is an alkaline earth metal naturally present in soils. When available at a high level in the soil it can cause toxicity to plants and animals. Not all the barium is readily available to living organisms. Inorganic and organic barium compounds can be presented as soluble or insoluble forms in the soil. The soluble form of BaS is extremely toxic to humans, animals and plants. Researchers have noted a decrease of K absorption in the plant when Ba concentrations are increased and a change in overall plant growth. In case of animals, Ba tends to be concentrated in the bones which may compete with calcium, although only about 2% barium ingested in dietary is absorbed by the body. Another effect is that the Ba can interfere with the availability of sulfur in the soil due to the sulphate formation of low solubility. Barium and some other elements are considered palioclimatic proxies. For some researchers, barite is perhaps the most appropriate indicator of paleoproductivity because of a high resistance to dissolution. As explained about the barium effects in various situations, it was considered important to study the more appropriated experimental conditions for determination of this element by INAA. Conditions established for this analysis were: a) Irradiation time, 15 and 40 seconds, under thermal flux neutron about 4 x 1012 n cm-2 s-1, for determining barium in geological and biological matrices, respectively; b) Decay time, approximately of 4 minutes; c) Counting time of 30 minutes; d) Radionuclide measured 139Ba. The quality of Ba results was evaluated from the analysis of certified reference materials. The performance of the method was satisfactory, according to the criterion of E.ζ score. Results obtained in this study indicate INAA is a good alternative for Ba determination in geological and biological samples. (author)