A simple co-precipitation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric method for the determination of uranium in seawater

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used in the determination of ²³⁸uranium in seawater after concentration by a simplified co-precipitation with iron hydroxide. Ocean water and reference seawater were used in the study. The co-precipitation method required a smaller sample volume (10 fold less), and less column separation to recover the uranium from the seawater matrix, compared to the original iron hydroxide method. The direct seawater dilution technique requires only a small seawater volume (0.5 mL) and offers a rapid, reliable method for uranium analysis in seawater compared to traditional methods. Comparison of the results for simple co-precipitation, direct dilution of seawater, and theoretical uranium values based on salinity concentrations, yielded negligible differences. Data from this work show that the certified value for NASS-4 is low.