Activation Analysis of Particulate Air Contaminants

Abstract

TYPICAL air samples contain particulate air contaminants in concentration of 100–2,000 (µg/m³. Standard methods for analysing the composition of these contaminants are tedious and often insensitive¹. The application of activation analysis for the inorganic elements appears to be attractive as a fast, sensitive and highly specific method. Preliminary irradiations of samples collected on filter paper have been performed and have shown that the method is feasible. Identification of several radioactive species has been accomplished, and quantitative estimates have been made. One problem has been that the filter paper as well as the contaminants activate, necessitating the irradiation of a control sample to correct for the effect.