METHOD OF DETERMINING HEAVY ELEMENTS Russian patent published in 1998 - IPC

FIELD: analytical methods. SUBSTANCE: invention deals with determining heavy elements, including precious metals, at low, sub-background contents of these elements in rocks, ores, and minerals. A specimen with fluorophlogopite detector is irradiated in accelerator by nitrogen, oxygen, or boron ion fluxes depending on element (iridium, osmium, or gold) selection necessity. F-Radiogram of the specimen is then registered. After irradiation, detector is thermally treated within the 450-600 C temperature range for 4-6 h, after which polymer track detector is exposed to induced α-radiation for 1 to 100 h and f- and α-radiograms are compared by way of overlapping and subtraction of one image of investigated element from the other. From the difference obtained, one judges about presence of platinum group elements and gold in the specimen, their distribution, and their summary concentration. Second irradiation of specimen is performed using oxygen, fluorine, or carbon ions fluxes and entire operation sequence is repeated. From the second f- and α- radiograms' comparison, presence of, respectively, iridium, osmium, or gold is stated and their distribution and concentration are determined. EFFECT: increased reliability of selective isolation of individual elements.