![]() Traditionally, analysts ash inspection samples in a furnace before acid digestion and lengthy chemical separations. “The benefits of this methodology could extend beyond nuclear material analysis, to many applications requiring direct elemental analysis,” Manard said. In a subsequent study, they applied the technique to the analysis of plutonium. Moreover, the researchers made precise and accurate measurements of the ratios of major and minor isotopes of elements in nuclear reference materials. The team was able to detect as little as 50 picograms of uranium - 80 million times lighter than a grain of sand. With this novel approach to assaying solids, co-author Kayron Rogers of ORNL made a series of swipe samples containing varying amounts of reference standards. “With just a click of a button, you’re going from a solid sample on a swipe to an isotopic measurement,” he said. Then the solution containing the actinide moves into a mass spectrometer for analysis. ![]() The microextraction probe lowers onto the swipe, seals it to the stage surface and delivers an acid solvent that dissolves any actinides present in the swipe. An analyst places a swipe on the extraction stage, selects a region of interest and initiates the process by pressing a button. “It truly is an integrated system,” Manard said. Manard’s team couples the probe to an instrument that subjects the extracted material to a plasma - an ionized gas hotter than the surface of the sun - and measures the mass-to-charge ratios of the ions generated from the sample. The pen-sized microextraction probe in Advion’s Plate Express product uses a “wet vacuum” to mobilize material from a swipe surface. DOE NWAL coordinator and co-author Brian Ticknor said, “The microextraction method, if it achieves suitable precision and accuracy, could enable higher sample throughput and faster turnaround time.” This innovation could help IAEA’s Network of Analytical Laboratories, or NWAL, which includes ORNL, analyze samples collected from facilities worldwide.
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