Abstract
A method has been developed to determine the potassium content of ashed vegetation sample in the presence of high sodium content by non-destructive neutron activation analysis. Potassium acid phthalae and sodium bicarbonate were used as the standard materials for potassium and sodium, respectively. The induced activities of the standard materials or samples were measured using a C-M counter and thick or thin aluminum absorbers. The relationship between the difference of the counting rates through the two absorbers and the weight of each standard material was established. The relevancy between the ratio of the counting rates through the two absorbers and the ratio of the weight of both standard materials was also determined. Using these relationships the potassium content of vegetation samples having high sodium-potassium ratios was determined. This method was applied to the analysis of vegetation for environmental monitoring.
