Radiometric determination of boron with mandelic acid and zinc-65-labelled bis(1,10-phenanthroline)zinc(II)

The use of solvent extraction methods for the radiometric determination of boron is scarce. This work was undertaken to examine the feasibility of an indirect radiometric method for the determination of trace amounts of boron by solvent extraction. Mandelic acid was used as the complexing agent for boron and the complex anion formed was extracted as an ion associate with zinc-65-labelled bis(1,10 -phenanthroline)zinc(II) into isobutyl methyl ketone. The activity of zinc in the organic layer was measured using an NaI-Tl well-type scintillation detector, and was a linear function of the concentration of boron in the aqueous phase over the range 0-10 μg in a final volume of 15 ml. A detection limit of 0.25 μg of boron in a 15 ml aqueous volume could be achieved. The interfering effect of various ions was overcome by selective distillation of boron as methyl borate. The method was applied to the determination of boron in Cr-Mo-B alloy, ointments, talcum powder and eye lotion samples. The reliability of the proposed method was checked by comparing the results obtained for the above samples with those given by ICP-AES.