Developed Method for Thorium Analysis in Egyptian Black Sand Monazite Fractions

Egyptian monazite fractions are frequently containing the fertile 232Th, which entails a rapid method for its routine analysis . details are given, in the present work, to develop a direct spectrophotometric method for investigating thorium in monazite samples. Thoron, 2-(2-hydroxy-3,6-disulpho-1 naphthylazo)-benzene arsenic acid, is applied in this determination . difficulties encountering analysis of the element without prior extraction had been eliminated via selective leaching of thorium from the sulfuric acid digested monazite sludge. conditions, for measurements, are optimized through Ph and thoron concentration adjustments. Monazite/acid ratio and digestion time are moreover, optimized. Validation of the method was verified by analysis of the monazite fractions by γ-analysis. Results obtained show accuracy and satisfactorily results when compared with, a non-destructive, γ-spectrometric technique . the relative standard deviations, R S D, for the analyzed monazite fraction samples are in the rang of ±(2-4)% and ±(0.58-1.12)% for the spectrophotometric and γ-spectrometric analyses respectively. the two methods can be applied for rapid analysis of thorium in different egyptian monazite fractions and source nuclear materials as will be discussed latter on