Preparation and characterization of MnO2- SiO2 composite resin for 226Ra pre-concentration in water samples

The presented work describes an effective method for 226Ra determination using laboratory- prepared MnO2-SiO2 composite resin. Samples were traced with 133Ba for radium radiochemical recoveries monitoring which were in the range of (77 - 100%). MnO2- SiO2 composite resin was used to collect for 226Ra from water samples (pH = 6.5-7.0). Radium was eluted from the column with 50 mL of 4 mol L−1 HNO3 at a flow rate of 1.5 mL min−1. Alpha-spectrometric counting of Ba(Ra)SO4 microprecipitate was used for 226Ra determination. The new developed method was used to the 226Ra determination in samples of natural mineral, mountain spring, drinking and natural healing waters from Slovakia and Czech Republic.