Determination of oxygen in ferrosilicon by 14 MeV neutron activation

Abstract

To the determination of a trace amount of oxygen in ferrosilicon, 14 MeV neutron activation with gold as an internal standard have been employed. In order to remove the disturbance towards the count of ¹⁶N and ^197mAu with ²⁸Al, produced from ferrosilicon, experimental conditions and discriminator level of ¹⁶N were examined. To ferrosilicon powder, silicic anhydride is added step-wise and calibration curve was prepared by plotting the added oxygen amounts and S_N/S_Au. From the slope of the calibration, oxygen amount in each sample is calculated. The experiments were carried out ranging for two days with the same sample. While a great change was made on the neutron bundle when the gold internal standard method, was not employed, any influences have not been made with this method. The experimental facts indicated that the gold internal standard method was found to be effective as a practical analytical method.