Simultaneous determination of arsenic, manganese, and selenium in biological materials by neutron-activation analysis.

A new method was developed for the simultaneous determination of arsenic, manganese, and selenium in biological material by thermal-neutron activation analysis. The use of (81 m)Se as indicator for selenium permitted a reduction of activation time to 1 hr for a 1 g sample, and the possibility of loss of volatile compounds during irradiation could be dismissed. No pretreatment of the sample is required, and the radiochemical separation scheme is based on simple chemical operations, completed in less than 3 hr. A systematic experimental investigation of the performance characteristics of the method was carried out, including studies of the accuracy of the results. The actual precision achieved in routine application of the method in the analytical laboratory was in good agreement with the calculated precision, and the results are therefore well suited for statistical evaluation of differences at the ppM level in samples of biological tissue.