Analytical Sciences

Quality Assessment of INAA Data for Small-sized Environmental Reference Samples

Wanna WIMOLWATTANAPUN,*1 Supamatthree BUNPRAPOB,*1 Mang Dung HO,*2 SUTISNA,*3 Yasuji OURA,*4 and Mitsuru EBIHARA*4

*1 Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology, Ladyao, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
*2 Nuclear Research Institute, 1 Nguyen Tu Luc, Dalat, Viet Nam
*3 Center for Technology of Nuclear Industry Material, National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN), Serpong, Jakarta, Indonesia
*4 Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was applied for the accurate and precise determination of minor and trace elements in small-sized aliquants (1 to 2 mg) of two certified reference materials (CRM), NIES No. 8 and NIST 1632c. Four laboratories used either comparative- or k₀-INAA, or both, and repeated the analysis more than ten times for each CRM. Based on z-scores and zeta scores of analytical data, QA/QC in analyzing such small scale of the two reference samples was assessed, revealing that there was a clear difference in the analytical ability among participating laboratories. It was concluded that the two CRM samples on the mg scale can be used as reference samples in INAA of a similarly small-scaled sample, at least for the 16 – 18 elements examined.

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