abstract
Article history:
Received 3 September 2008
Accepted 11 March 2009
Available online 20 March 2009
Keywords:
Boron
Isotope ratio
Steel
Continuum source AAS
In the production of 10B enriched steels, the production–recycling process needs to be closely monitored for
inadvertent mix-up of materials with different B isotope levels. A quick and simple method for the estimation
of boron isotope ratios in high alloyed steels using high resolution continuum source flame AAS (HR-CSFAAS)
was developed. On the 208.9 nm B line the wavelength of the peak absorption of 10B and 11B differs by
2.5 pm. The wavelength of the peak absorption of boron was determined by fitting a Gauss function through
spectra simultaneously recorded by HR-CS-FAAS. It was shown that a linear correlation between the
wavelength of the peak absorption and the isotope ratio exists and that this correlation is independent of the
total boron concentration. Internal spectroscopic standards were used to compensate for monochromator
drift and monochromator resolution changes. Accuracy and precision of the analyzed samples were thereby
increased by a factor of up to 1.3. Three steel reference materials and one boric acid CRM, each certified for
the boron isotope ratio were used to validate the procedure.