Determination of antimony in natural waters by preconcentration on a chelating sorbent followed by instrumental neutron activation analysis.

Antimony was preconcentrated from natural waters on thionalide-loaded acrylic polymer (Bio-Beads SM-7) from 0.5 m HCl solution. Prior to the preconcentration, Sb(V) was reduced to Sb(III) with potassium iodide. The antimony retained on the resin was determined by neutron activation and gamma-spectrometric measurement of 122Sb (564 keV). The lower limit of detection was 0.023 micrograms/L for a 100-mL sample.