About 20 l of water was collected from underground water and
surface water sources in pre acid cleaned cans. Locations were
marked using a GPS system and using portable pH meter pH
was measured at the sampling Location. Analysis of radium in
water generally involves pre-concentration of samples by co-precipitation or evaporation
We have adopted the method of adsorbing the radium in
water on commercially available manganese dioxide powder,
which can be used even for in-situ processing. About 20 l of
water samples was filtered through Whatman 42 filter paper.
To this filtered water in the container, 5 g of analytical grade
MnO2 powder was added. The mixture was stirred for a period
of 1 h using amechanical stirrer and then allowed to settle for
2 h. The solution was heated until the clear solution was obtained
and then treated with 50 ml of concentrated HCl. The
solution was evaporated to near dryness and treated with
30 ml of concentrated HNO3 to convert it into nitric acid medium
and heated 3 times to near dryness to evaporate the
organic content present in the water. The system was then
cooled and make the solution about 70 ml using 4 N HNO3.