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Measuring bismuth‐210, its parent, and daughter in aquatic systems
Author(s) -
Waples James T.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography: methods
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.898
H-Index - 72
ISSN - 1541-5856
DOI - 10.1002/lom3.10352
Subject(s) - bismuth , extraction (chemistry) , analytical chemistry (journal) , sorption , chemistry , ion , phase (matter) , geometric mean , solid phase extraction , nuclide , radiochemistry , environmental chemistry , chromatography , physics , mathematics , nuclear physics , geometry , organic chemistry , adsorption
210 Bi ( t 1/2 : 5.01 d)—the daughter of 210 Pb and parent of 210 Po—has rarely been measured in aquatic systems, and its behavior in the water column is poorly understood. In this article, I present a method for quickly measuring 210 Pb, 210 Bi, and 210 Po in aquatic samples, where (1) 210 Bi and 210 Po are scavenged onto an anion solid‐phase extraction disk within 15 min of pretreating the sample; (2) beta decay of 210 Bi is counted on the disk immediately thereafter; (3) 210 Po is subsequently removed from the disk and redeposited on a copper plate for α‐spectroscopy; and (4) 210 Pb is determined via the ingrowth of 210 Bi. I present decay‐corrected calculations for total, dissolved, and particle‐bound fractions of each nuclide and conclude with an analysis of 210 Pb, 210 Bi, and 210 Po activities in rain, dreissenid (quagga) mussels, and water samples from the Milwaukee Inner Harbor in Lake Michigan. Results show that the loss of lead on the anion solid‐phase extraction disks was negligible (0.2% ± 2.1%; ± 1 SD, n = 4), and the sorption of bismuth was complete (99% ± 2%; ± 1 SD, n = 16). Relative mean absolute deviations of duplicate sample analyses of lake water were 2.4% ± 1.9% for 210 Pb (geometric mean of total sample activity: 3.0 disintegrations per minute [dpm], n = 6), 7.7% ± 5.8% for 210 Bi (geometric mean of total sample activity: 2.6 dpm, n = 8), and 2.7% ± 1.7% for 210 Po (geometric mean of total sample activity: 1.4 dpm, n = 8).