Improved Separation of Pa from Th and U in Marine Sediments with TK400 Resin

Protactinium-231 is a radionuclide of broad interest in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology. This study describes an improved method for the purification and separation of Pa from marine sediment samples using the new TK400 resin by TrisKem International. The focus lies on the improvement of the separation of the abundant ²³²Th from the Pa fraction of the sample, which would reduce the peak tailing from ²³²Th on masses 231 and 233 during ICP-MS measurement. Furthermore, the reusability of TK400 has been tested. For this purpose, the conventional method using Dowex AG1X8 for the separation and purification of Pa has been compared to methods using the TK400 resin. A combination of a Dowex AG1X8 prior to a TK400 column has shown most convincing results. Based on our results we suggest a new efficient procedural method of analyzing ²³¹Pa from marine sediment samples using TK400. Chemical Pa yields for a Dowex-TK400 combination are highest compared to the Dowex only method. Furthermore, the ²³²Th/²³¹Pa ratio of the Pa-fractions has been reduced by 1 order of magnitude compared to conventional methods with Dowex AG1X8. Additionally, the reusability of TK400 resin up to nine times has been proven. The usage of TK400 is only limited in the presence of samples with a high matrix load (e.g., Fe). Therefore, matrix from sediment samples needs to be removed (here using Dowex resin) before samples are loaded onto TK400. We also report a series of concentration measurements from standard reference materials (UREM-11, NIST 2702), which have been used for ²³³Pa calibration.