A performance comparison of select alkylbenzene and detergent based liquid scintillation cocktails

Tritium was employed in the evaluation of performance characteristics for six commercially available cocktails represented by the manufacturers to possess favorable disposal characteristics. Unidentified alkylbenzene organic solvents and/or triton-like detergents form the basis for these cocktails, which were evaluated in large (20 mL) and mini (7 mL) glass and polyethylene vials. The cocktails showed higher backgrounds, lower unquenched efficiencies, and greater quench resistance to nitromethane than a reference toluene based preparation. Detergent based cocktails were difficult to dispense accurately, and resisted sample incorporation. One cocktail lacked stability in polyethylene vials.