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Title

Trace Element Analysis of Slag and Coal Materials Using Photon Activation Analysis

Organization

Department: Nuclear Eng'g & Health Physics

University: Idaho State University College: Science & Engineering Department: Nuclear Eng'g & Health Physics 23

Document Attachments

Resource	Length	Width	Thickness
Paper	0	0	0

Specimen Elements

City

Pocatello

Coverage

Unknown to Unknown

Creator

Nathaniel W. Gardner

Publisher

Idaho State University

Type

Thesis

Is Complete

No

Date Published

7/6/2018

Archive

digital

City: Pocatello

Degree

Master

Document Attachments

Abstracts

Photon activation analysis has long been used as a method to identify unknown elements in a sample. The technique relies upon creating high energy photons via bremsstrahlung from a particle accelerator which then undergo photonuclear reactions in a target sample. The sample is left in an excited state which can decay via gamma ray emission; the gamma emissions can be analyzed using gamma spectroscopy techniques. This research focused on the use of photon activation analysis to perform a measurement of trace element quantities of known elements in several samples. A 25 MeV linear accelerator was used to create the activation bremsstrahlung. The photons were directed at samples of mining slag, coal, coal ash, and fly ash. The activated samples were then analyzed using gamma ray detectors and the Multi-Purpose Analysis (MPA) program. Finally, the resulting peaks were compared with known standards to extract mass information down to the microgram level.