Applications of Activation Analysis

The applications of activation analysis are almost innumerable. In the physical sciences, activation analysis is used in trace-element analysis of semiconductor materials, metals, meteorites, lunar samples, and terrestrial rocks. In most cases, the multielemental analysis feature of activation analysis is used to measure the concentrations of several trace-elements simultaneously. From these detailed studies of trace-element abundance patterns, one has been able to deduce information about the thermal and chemical history of the Earth, moon, Mars, and meteorites, as well as the source or age of an object. 

The use of activation analysis in criminal investigations (forensic activation analysis) is also well established. The basic idea here is to match the trace-element distributions found in bullets, paint, oil, and so on found at the scene of a crime with the trace-element distributions in objects found with criminal suspects. Such identification is rapid and nondestructive (allowing the actual evidence to be presented in court). Moreover, the probability of its correctness can be ascertained quantitatively. Other prominent examples of the use of forensic activation analysis involve confirmation of the notion that Napoleon was poisoned (by finding significant amounts of arsenic in hair from his head) and the finding that the activation analysis of the wipe samples taken from a suspect s hand can reveal not only if he or she has fired a gun recently but also the type of gun and ammunition used. 

Applications of activation analysis in the environmental sciences are routine. Determinations of the trace element content of urban atmospheres, lakes, streams, 

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Application of Activation Analysis to the Determination of Pellet Weight in the M34 Primer , AMMRC TR 69-19 (1969) 7) A. Richardson... 

In recent year s, there has been increasing use of ICP-MS techniques to replace those of activation analysis, although there still are a large number of applications of activation analysis each year, especially in the geological sciences. 

Many of the early applications of activation analysis were designed specifically to take advantage of its high sensitivity for rarer elements and its freedom from sources of contamination. In these trace element... 

The recent general availability of solid state Ge(Li) gamma-ray detectors has made possible new applications of activation analysis to multielement trace analysis. A simplified schematic representation of a Ge(Li) detector is given in Fig. 6. The principal advantage of these detectors is their excellent energy resolution for gamma-ray spectrometry 52>. While a typical 3 X 3" NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal may have a photopeak resolution of 50 KeV fwhm (/ull width at Aalf maximum) for the 137Cs... 

R. C. Koch, J. Roesmer, Application of activation analysis to the determination of trace element concentrations in meat, J. Food Sci., 27 (1962), 309D 320. 

An important aim of activation analysis is high activation of the trace elements to be determined and low activation of the main components. In this respect, the ratios of the cross sections of the elements to be determined (af) and of the main components (Z(Tm) and the half-lives are important. The higher the ratio <7x/S(7m, the more favourable is the application of activation analysis. Furthermore, if the half-lives of the activation products of the main components are shorter than those of the radionuclides to be measured, the activity of the latter is determined some appropriate time after the end of irradiation. If they are relatively long, the time of irradiation is chosen in such a way that activation of the elements to be determined is high, whereas activation of the main components is low. 

Applications of activation analysis are to be found in all the major fields where analytical chemistry is employed. Some of the unique properties of the method have rendered its contributions in the field of trace element analysis invaluable. 

Other major literature on NAA in the form of chapters in books also cover in depth or include a discussion of the applications of activation analysis. In earlier years, good coverage appeared by Comar (1969) on clinical applications of activation analysis in Advances in Activation Analysis. Writing in Nuclear Analytical Techniques in Medicine, Cesareo (1988b) authored a contribution on Photon induced X-Ray emission. Of note is the fact that this is dually classified... 

Comar D (1969) Clinical applications of activation analysis. In Lenihan JMA and Thompson SJ, eds. Advances in Activation Analysis, Vol 1, pp. 163-206. Academic Press, New York. 

Dudley, N. D., Ross, L. E., Noshkin, V. E., Application of Activation Analysis and Ge(Li) Detection Techniques for the Determination of Stable Elements in Marine Aerosols, 1968, p. 55, Proceedings of the International Conference on Modern Trends in Actication Analysis, National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Md. 

C. Applications of Activation Analysis to Soil and Water Analysis. 397... 

Loveridge and Smales (560) were the first to publish an extensive paper about the applications of activation analysis to biochemistry. Their report covered the period 1944-1957. Since then many other review articles have been written about its capabilities as a methodology to analyze for trace substances in problems from medicine, veterinary medicine, forensic medicine, dental science, pharmacology, botany and agriculture. More specifically, these articles can be categorized in the following manner ... 

In addition, other reviews on the general applications of activation analysis methodology were created. Most of these articles contain useful information that can be utilized by investigators in life science research as they plan to advance their interests through the use of activation analysis. The authors of these particular publications are as follows ... 

Many of the review articles cited above emphasize the sensitivity limits of activation analysis. Experimenters constantly seek techniques to improve these limits for example, a number of recent reports show that some experimenters consider very short-lived species (with radioactive half-lives of seconds or minutes) to be most easily used to obtain sensitivity and a rapid analysis (18,171,177,565,625,883). Other reports (17, 70,157,326,328,461,566,730,832) give specific information about optimum conditions for sensitivity, and other experimenters have evaluated the maximum sensitivity that can be obtained in the presence of interfering radionuclides, a condition that sometimes becomes a major disadvantage in the application of activation analysis methodology to a given sample material (404,729,730,740). 

Applications of Activation Analysis in Human Biochemistry Trace Elements Constituents of Tissues and Body Fluids... 

B. APPLICATIONS OF ACTIVATION ANALYSIS TO INVESTIGATIONS OF THE BELATIONSHIP OF ABNOBMAL TBACE ELEMENT CONCENTBATIONS TO DISEASE STATES... 

In recent years, medical research workers have reported that an apparent correlation exists between trace elements and certain types of diseases. As a result, many hypotheses about the abnormal role of certain trace elements to cancer, hypertension, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cystic flbrosis and other diseases have evolved. Some of these researchers have considered activation analysis to be a most important tool for this type of research, because it is sensitive and requires only a small amount of material for an assay. Typical applications of activation analysis to this major area of medical research are given in Table IV. 

In other studies, Edwards (248), Fairchild, Tonna, and Seibold (257, 258) and Frigero (293) have employed activation analysis low-background radiographic techniques to measure the boron distribution within cells in order to use Boron-10 in clinical trials of an experimental therapuetic procedure, that is, neutron capture therapy. These particular cellular distribution studies were carried out on mouse spleen, and, after the activation, the materials were exposed to photographic nuclear track emulsions of Eastman Kodak Type NTA. The countable a-particle tracks obtained in these experiments showed that concentrations of B-10 of 60 Mg/gm, the amount that can be safely delivered to tumors in human subjects, could be readily determined. In other applications of activation analysis and autoradiography, Vincent (963) and Vincent, Haumont and Roels (964) made microscopic determinations of sodium in compact bone and of bone phosphorus. 

Applications of Activation Analysis in Plant Biochemistry Trace Element Constituents of Plant Tissues... 

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