Spectrographic determination of strontium in yttrium-90 solutions

The copper spark method has been used for determining strontium in the concentration range 1-100 g/ml in yttrium-90 solutions containing 0,5 % or thereabouts of ammonium citrate. The influence of the citric acid as well as the ammonium citrate with regard to 2N HCL solutions has been studied: the citric acid enhances the line intensities of strontium. The employment of either barium or lanthanum as reference element compensates for this enhancement. Because of the increase in sensitivity mentioned above, the study of influence of the citric acid has been extended and several impurities usually determined in radioisotope solutions have been considered. (Author) 4 refs