Some Radioanalytical Techniques

Abstract

Radioisotopes have many applications in analytical chemistry, and the ease with which even small amounts of activity may be detected has resulted in the widespread use of radioanalytical techniques for the quantitative analysis of nonradioactive materials down to the sub-picogramme level. As we have seen there are difficulties associated with the handling of carrier-free labelled compounds, largely resulting from the adsorption of such materials on apparatus, filter papers, or even dust particles within a solution. For this reason most radioanalytical work is performed with labelled materials to which chemically identical carrier materials have been added. Of course, the addition of carrier reduces the specific activity of a labelled compound, and consequently the ultimate sensitivity of the analytical technique utilising that compound, so that the amount of carrier is normally kept small in macroscopic terms, while still being orders of magnitude greater than the amount of radioactive material.