Radioactive uranium measurement in vivo using a handheld interfaced analyzer

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Sensor Technology

Background:

• Trace uranium detection is crucial for environmental monitoring and health risk assessment.
• Existing methods often require complex equipment and laboratory settings.
• Development of portable, sensitive, and cost-effective detection tools is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a portable and sensitive method for trace uranium detection.
• To utilize a handheld voltammetric analyzer with graphite pencil electrodes for uranium analysis.
• To validate the method's applicability in real-world environmental and biological samples.

Main Methods:

• A handheld voltammetric analyzer, the size of a mobile phone, was employed.
• Graphite pencil electrodes (PE) were used as working sensors.
• Stripping voltammetric conditions were optimized to determine trace uranium concentrations.

Main Results:

• The developed method achieved a working range of 0.0 to 0.08 ng/L for uranium detection.
• A low detection limit of approximately 0.007 ng/L was obtained with an accumulation time of 150 s.
• The method demonstrated a relative standard deviation of 1.78% (n=15) at a 10.0 µg/L uranium spike.
• Successful application to soil samples from a radioactive mineralogy site and earthworm assays were reported.

Conclusions:

• The developed portable voltammetric method offers a sensitive and efficient approach for trace uranium detection.
• The method is suitable for in-situ environmental monitoring and biological diagnosis.
• The use of simple graphite pencil electrodes makes the technology accessible and cost-effective.