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Isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) for determination of concentration of enriched lithium using NaLiBO2+ ions

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Abstract

Calibration of 6Li enriched spike by Reverse IDMS was carried out by monitoring molecular ion species NaLiBO2+ at m/z 71, 72 and 73 together with Na2BO2+ at m/z 88 and 89. Two independent 6Li/7Li ratios were obtained from two ion intensity ratios, 73I/71I and 72I/73I and the concentration values for lithium determined using these two ratios were in close agreement with each other. The use of heavier molecular ions resulted in a precision of better than 0.1% for the concentration of lithium in 6Li spike determined by R-IDMS and 7Li enriched solution of Li2CO3 determined using the pre-calibrated 6Li spike.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their sincere thanks to Mr. SandeepViswasrao and Mr. Rajesh Jadhav of Equipment Electronics Service Section, of RC &I Group for their prompt troubleshooting services, Dr. S. Kannan, Head, Fuel Chemistry Division, and Dr. P.G. Jaison, Head Mass Spectrometry Section for their encouragement and support. Authors also express their gratitude to the peer reviewers for their valuable suggestions to bring this manuscript into a well-structured format.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FCD, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400 085, India

    K. Sasi Bhushan, Preeti G. Goswami & Radhika M. Rao

  2. HomiBhabha National Institute, Mumbai, 400 085, India

    K. Sasi Bhushan

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  1. K. Sasi Bhushan
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  2. Preeti G. Goswami
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  3. Radhika M. Rao
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Correspondence to Radhika M. Rao.

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Appendix: Error propagation during calibration of spike by IDMS

Appendix: Error propagation during calibration of spike by IDMS

$$C_{sp} = \frac{{ W_{std} \times C_{std} }}{{W_{sp} }} \times \frac{{RM - R_{std} }}{{\left[ { 1 {-} \left( {RM / R_{sp} } \right)} \right]}} \times \frac{{At Wt_{ sp} }}{{At Wt_{std} }} \times \frac{{A.F.Li _{std}^{7} }}{{A.F. Li_{sp}^{6} }}$$

Rsp, Rstd and RM are the observed 6Li/7Li isotope ratios in the spike, standard and blend of standard + spike respectively, At.Wt. denotes average atomic weight of Lithium in standard or enriched isotope and A.F. denotes atomic fraction of the isotope in spike and standard.

The contribution of various terms in the IDMS equation to the total uncertainty in the concentration of lithium in the spike solution (Tables 6 and 7).

Table 6 Uncertainty in the concentration of lithium in the standard
Full size table

Uncertainty in the concentration of lithium in Li2CO3 (ustd) = √ u12 + u22 + u32 = 0.037%.

Table 7 Uncertainty in the concentration of lithium in 6Li enriched solution
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Bhushan, K.S., Goswami, P.G. & Rao, R.M. Isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) for determination of concentration of enriched lithium using NaLiBO2+ ions. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 326, 1009–1017 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07409-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07409-w

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