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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Separation of Uranium and Thorium for 230Th-U Dating of Submarine Hydrothermal Sulfides
Published on: May 20, 2019
Isolation of thorium in biological samples
1Department of Radiation Biology, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York, U.S.A.
Abstract:
A scheme for the isolation of subpicogram to microgram amounts of thorium from bone and soft tissue samples is described. Thorium is first collected by co-precipitation with iron(III) hydroxide and then adsorbed by a cation-exchange resin column from a concentrated hydrochloric acid solution of the precipitate. A double precipitation is necessary for bone samples whereas a single precipitation suffices for liver samples. The thorium is eluted from the column with an ammonium carbonate solution which is then evaporated to dryness to effect the isolation. Good recoveries of thorium from bone samples are obtained.

