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Outline
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Application of a beryllium specific resin at the Y-12 National Security Complex
  • Darrin K. Mann, D.H. “Bo” Bowman, Thomas J. Oatts, and Vicki F. Belt
  • Analytical Chemistry Organization
  • Y-12 National Security Complex
  • P.O. Box 2009, MS 8189
  • Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8189
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Be: Why we use it
  • Discovered in 1798
    • Not widely used in Industry until 1940s and 50s
  • Lighter then Aluminum, Stiffer then Steel
    • 2nd lightest metal
    • 6 times stiffer then steel
  • High heat absorption
    • One pound absorbs as much heat as 6 pounds of copper
  • Be Metals, Alloys, Salts and Oxides are used for a wide variety of Industries
    • Structures in high-speed aircraft (space shuttle)
    • Satellite mirrors and space telescopes
    • Golf clubs and bicycle frames
    • Neutron moderators or reflectors in nuclear reactors

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Problems Associated with Be
  • Physical Problems
    • Expensive
    • Brittleness
      • Increases toxicity
  • Health Hazard
    • Most Significant disadvantage for industrial use
    • Causes Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD)
      • No known cure, can only be treated
        • Produces scaring of lung tissue
      • Chronic, may take years to develop
        • Average latency period is 10-15 years
      • 2-5 % of population Be sensitive
      • Over 100 current and former DOE employees have CBD

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Be program at Y-12 National Security Complex
  • Controlled by US Dept. of Energy’s Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program
    • 10 CFR Part 850
    •  Promulgated in 1999 to protect DOE workers from CBD
    • Requires Be surface and air monitoring to determine health risk
    • Rule greatly increased the need for Be analysis in the DOE complex
    • Current analytical methods include ICPOES and GFAA


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Overview of Y-12 Be Program
  • Over 50K Samples Analyzed in 04.
  • Average 53 +/- 79 samples/day
  • Average 2625 +/- 876 samples/month
  • Average turnaround time is 24 hours.
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Typical Workloads Associated with Be Program
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Breakdown of Be Smears at Y-12
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Basic Flow Chart for Analysis
of Be Smear Program
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The Problem?
  • The Internal Standard (IS) works great correcting interferences to a point:
    • High Concentrations of Interfering Elements
      • Some elements are very spectral rich
        • Uranium
          • Shift depends on enrichment
    • Some elements overlap spectrally
      • Vanadium, Cesium and Zirconium are examples
      • Dilution not useful for these elements
  • Possible Solutions
    • Dilution
      • May lose Be signal
      • Increase in MDL
    • Run samples by ICPMS
      • Expensive (relative to an OES)
      • Not as rugged as OES (can’t handle 500 samples/day)
    • Remove/Concentrate Be




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Method using Eichrom Be resin
  • Elegantly simplistic
  • Usually use 5 ml of sample left over from ICPOES analysis
  • Adjust sample pH to between 1-2 with 4 M Sodium Acetate
  • 2% Crystal Violet used as indicator (3-4 drops)
  • Load sample onto Be cartridge (usually 10 mL) and pass through at 2 ml/min
  • Rinse cartridge with 10 ml of 0.2 M HNO3 at 2 ml/min
  • Elute Be with 10 ml of 4M HNO3 at < 1 ml/min
  • Sample can be re-run within a few hours.


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Vacuum System with Be cartridges and 10 ml Reservoirs
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How clean are the Samples?
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Comparison of Be data using Be Resin and ICPMS Analysis
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Be recovery Conc. Before and After Be cartridge
ICP Analysis Represents “Normal” Analysis
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Percent Recovery of Be vs. Initial Concentration
ICPMS and ICPOES Results
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So Where is the Be Going?
  • ICPMS data appears acceptable, so Be is there.
  • Recovery of Be in ICV and CCV is fine
  • Colored samples may cause pH problem
    • Yellow Samples are a particular problem
  • Answer may lie in looking at IS Scandium
    • Signal is being suppressed
    • RSD is very poor (5-10%)



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Recovery of IS Scandium
2 mg/L standard added
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Why is IS Signal being Suppressed?
  • Doesn’t seem to correct in same ratio as Be
  • Very large suppression at times, up to 75% of signal.
  • Only source of suppression can come from column
  • Doesn’t seem to be acid concentration based
  • An organic from the resin may be complexing with Sc and pulling it out of solution
  • Need to remove organic after it passes through initial column.


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Recovery of Sc IS using
Post Organic Resin Cartridge
2 ug/L Sc added
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Conclusion/Future Work
  • Eichrom’s Be resin seems to be a fast and reliable method to remove spectral interferences from samples when analyzing for Beryllium
  • Need to better understand the effects of residual organics on the recovery of Internal Standards such as Sc.
    • A post organic filter seems to solve the problem
  •  Filter could be used to Lower MDL
    • ACGIH has recently issued a Notice of Intended Change (NIC) to lower the Threshold Limit Value (TLV) for airborne beryllium to 0.02 micrograms per cubic meter, or one-tenth of the current DOE action level.
    • Concentrate sample onto column, elate with smaller volume
  • Need to quicken the process
    • Reduce number of sample
      • Customer knowledge??