Issue 43, 2024

Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopic determination of trace rare earth elements in highly refractory gadolinium zirconate (Gd2Zr2O7)

Abstract

Gadolinium zirconate (Gd2Zr2O7) belongs to the category of burnable absorber (BA) material in nuclear reactors. The high neutron-absorption cross sections of Gd isotopes (155Gd and 157Gd) implement negative reactivity in the reactor core to control the excess reactivity of the fuel at the beginning of the fission cycle. The presence of other rare earth elements, which can come from the starting material and/or may be taken up during the synthesis steps, will affect the negative reactivity calculation. Thus the chemical quality assurance of Gd2Zr2O7 concerning the other trace rare earth impurities is indispensable. Here in this work, we decided to quantify thirteen trace rare earth elements in Gd2Zr2O7 by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). One of the matrix elements viz., zirconium was separated via precipitation using D,L-mandelic acid. The trace rare earths were determined in the presence of gadolinium matrix in solution. It was found that all thirteen rare earth elements can be quantified in the range of 0.25 to 2.5 mg L−1 in the presence of 516 mg L−1 of Gd with a relative standard deviation of 1–3%. This corresponds to the determination of a minimum of 0.25 mg analyte per g of Gd2Zr2O7. The method detection limits of all thirteen rare earth elements range between 0.01 and 0.075 mg g−1. The proposed methodology was validated by analyzing synthetic standards and real samples with spike addition.

Graphical abstract: Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopic determination of trace rare earth elements in highly refractory gadolinium zirconate (Gd2Zr2O7)

Supplementary files

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Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Jul 2024
Accepted
27 Sep 2024
First published
03 Oct 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2024,14, 31422-31428

Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopic determination of trace rare earth elements in highly refractory gadolinium zirconate (Gd2Zr2O7)

A. Saha, K. Kumari, S. B. Deb and M. K. Saxena, RSC Adv., 2024, 14, 31422 DOI: 10.1039/D4RA05017G

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