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Neutron Activation Analysis of Standard Soils
Author(s) -
Koons R. D.,
Helmke P. A.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1978.03615995004200020004x
Subject(s) - soil water , neutron activation analysis , coefficient of variation , soil test , environmental science , standard deviation , soil science , neutron , mineralogy , mathematics , geology , chemistry , statistics , radiochemistry , physics , nuclear physics
Four standard soils prepared by the Canadian Certified Reference Materials Project were analyzed for 25 elements to test for inhomogeneities within samples and to demonstrate the use of neutron activation for soil analysis. Five subsamples, weighing about 100 mg apiece, from each of two splits of each standard soil were analyzed. The precision of measurement as measured by the coefficient of variation was < 5% for 20 elements. No soil had more than four elements that differed significantly in concentrations between two splits at the 95% level of significance. Eight of the 12 differences that are significant occur for elements whose coefficient of variation is 2% or less.