Determination of (210)Pb, (210)Bi and (210)Po in natural waters and other materials by electrochemical separation

An improved method for determination of (210)Pb, (210)Bi and (210)Po in both natural waters and solid materials has been developed. Polonium-210 is spontaneously plated onto a silver disc from dilute hydrochloric acid medium. Bismuth-210 is then electro-deposited onto a platinum gauze cathode directly from the same solution, with a graphite rod as anode. Finally, (210)Pb is electro-deposited from a fluoroborate medium onto the same platinum gauze, used as the anode. All three nuclides are subsequently measured by standard low-level alpha and beta counting techniques. The speed of this method (approximately 6 hr per sample after pretreatment) is a distinct advantage over existing techniques, as (210)Bi must be quickly separated from (210)Pb because of its 5.02-day half-life. Another advantage of this method is that the chemical form of the sample solution is suitable for use of established separation schemes for determining other decay-series isotopes (U, Th, Pa, etc.) after the three short-lived nuclides have been processed.