4:05 PM - 4:20 PM
[MIS03-04] A new sample holder for XRF scanning of ion exchange resin samples
Keywords:XRF core scanner, Forensic geoscience, Geochemistry, Pollution, Itrax
X-ray fluorescence core scanners are primarily developed for the scanning of untreated soft sediment cores from marine of lacustrine settings. However, recently several innovative applications of this technique have been developed, including the scanning of frozen soupy sediment, powdered samples, and ion exchange resins. In particular, ion exchange resins have found application in forensic geoscience where they can be used for low-cost monitoring of clandestine pollution of natural waters. The principle is straight-forward: ion exchange resin is enclosed in small sachets that are deployed in the waters for a few days. During this time the resin takes up heavy metals from the polluted waters in direct relation to the concentrations in the water. After retrieval the sachets are dried and scanned in the XRF core scanner. This allows a rapid assessment of both spatial and temporal variations in the pollution level of heavy metals in the water. However, a major bottleneck in this otherwise rapid and cost effective analysis is the filling of the ion exchange resin into cuvettes, and mounting the cuvettes on a rack before they can be scanned. In this study we developed a new sample holder that allows the resin to be rapidly filled in to the sample holder through holes on the side using a funnel. The sample holder is then sealed and flipped 90 degrees to allow the scanning of an array of 15 resin samples. Several sample holder can be arranged to be scanned sequentially in the same scan. The new sample holders also considerably reduce the time needed for cleaning the holders in between scans, substantially improving this already efficient way of addressing wide spread contaminations in areasthat are otherwise hard to monitor.