Platinum concentrations in Danish air samples determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis

Platinum, gold and calcium concentrations of 20 samples of airborne dust collected at two sampling sites between 1995 and 1997 in the city of Copenhagen, which suffers from heavy traffic, were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). INAA of platinum using the 199Au daughter of 199Pt was performed. Two interferences on the INAA of platinum were removed by calculations. The spectral interference on 199Au from the 47Sc daughter of 47Ca was removed by separating the 157-161 keV doublet peak into its components by calculating the counts due to 47Sc from the counts of the parent 47Ca. The contribution of 197Au to 199Au by two neutron absorption was corrected for using the ratio 198Au/199Au in a pure Au standard. From the INAA results, high platinum concentrations are present in air in the range 0.25-2.74 ng m-3 and gold concentrations in the range 0.10-1.96 ng m-3.