Determination of aluminium, silicon and magnesium in geological matrices by delayed neutron activation analysis based on k0 instrumental neutron activation analysis

In this work, concentrations of silicon, aluminium and magnesium in geological matrices were determined by Neutron Activation Analysis based on k0-IAEA software. The optimum activation and delay times were found to be 5 min and 15-20 min respectively for the determination of Si via 29Si (n,p) 29Al reaction. The adopted irradiation scheme did not work for the determination of magnesium. Each sample was irradiated under a thermal neutron flux density of 5.0×1011 n cm−2 s−1. Cadmium covered activation indicated that a permanent epithermal irradiation site for research reactors would be very useful for routine determination of silicon in environmental samples.