A. I. Burnazyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center, Federal Medical-Biological Agency, Moscow, Russia:

V. Yu. Solovev, Head of Laboratory of Anthropogenic Risk Analysis, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Candidate of Technical Sciences, e-mail: soloviev.fmbc@gmail.com

S. S. Fatkina, Researcher of Laboratory of Information and Analytical Systems

A. I. Burnazyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center, Federal Medical-Biological Agency¹, Moscow, Russia ; National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”², Moscow, Russia.
V. F. Demin, Leading Researcher of Laboratory of Nanonsafety, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences^1,2

National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow, Russia:

А. А. Antsiferova, Head of Laboratory of Nanosafety

There were carried out theoretical and experimental grounds of possibility of the nuclear physical and X-ray fluorescence methods usage for detecting non-ferrous metals and its compounds (including ultradispersed form) in different samples. It was experimentally shown a principal possibility of estimation of the gold (including its ultradispersed form) content in samples in amounts up to 10–11 g/sample with the use of the IR-8 (ИР-8) research nuclear reactor with the average flux density of thermal neutrons equaled to 3·10¹² n/(cm²·s). Considering existing limitations of the maximum sample mass up to 0.5 kg, it is possible to estimate the gold content in samples in concentrations substantially smaller than the commercially profitable value. The experiment on fast neutrons and fast protons of the U-150 (У-150) isochronous cyclotron of the National Research Center (NRC) “Kurchatov Institute” has showed possibility of detecting titanium content in samples in the form of the TiO₂ powder in the ultradispersed form or rutile. Nuclear reactions of titanium nuclei interactions with fast neutrons generate ⁴⁶Sc and ⁴⁷Sc radioactive isotopes of scandium and interactions with fast protons generate ⁴⁸V isotope of vanadium, which possess characteristics acceptable for gamma spectroscopy analysis. There are also examined application prospects of the X-ray fluorescence analysis version which use not roentgen but synchrotron radiation — bremsstrahlung of electrons, moving along the curved trajectory. This allows to significantly raise the limits of elements detection (by 1–2 order when compared to X-ray tubes) and to analyze samples of extremely small volume and mass (about units of mg). The proposed set of methods gives principal possibility to detect several tens of non-ferrous metals.

This work has been carried out with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Agreement No. 14.604.21.0114 of August 11, 2014. Unique identifier of the agreement RFMEFI60414X0114). The unique plant — the IR-8 research reactor of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” and equipment from the Multiple-Access Center of the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University have been used to fulfill the presented research.

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