Neutron Activation Analysis of Soils

Abstract

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis has been applied in the multi-element analysis of five soils from three agro-ecological zones in Ghana, using the Single Relative Standardization Method. The analysis was carried out at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) Centre. Concentrations of 34 elements in deciduous forest, forest and Coastal Savanna soils were obtained. Elemental compositions and their levels in the five soils; Oda ,Bekwai, Toje, Akuse and Ankasa series are related to the nature of parent materials and the degree to which these materials have been altered by weathering. The low isotopic abundance, low thermal and epithermal cross-section together with the low sensitivity of 0.07 counts/pg for the 30Si nuclide with energy 1266KeV made detection of silicon in the five soils impossible. Validation of the analytical technique which was done using a Standard Reference Material SOIL-7 supplied by the International Atomic Energy Agency showed a maximum deviation of 23.9%.