Application of Acriflavine Basic Dye for Uranium and Thorium Analysis in Iron Rich Silicate Rock Samples

M. A. Abdelhamied

Nuclear Materials Authority, P.O. Box, 530 El Maadi, Cairo (Egypt)

An improved extraction-spectrophotometric method, using acriflavine basic dye, is described for the determination of uranium and thorium with a greater iron tolerance. The method would thus be greatly beneficial in case of altered geological specimens of relatively high iron content. Conditions are optimized for applying the method on Egyptian hematitized granites associated with secondary uranium mineralizations. The method is also readjusted for estimating thorium concentrations encountered in these geological specimens. In general, the detection limit for uranium is 0.10 ppm and for thorium is 0.2 ppm. The relative standard deviations (R.S.D.) are 3.5% and 5% for uranium and thorium detection limits at 95% confedence level, respectively.

Acriflavine basic dye; Uranium; Thorium; Silicate rock