for references up to 1953 to the rather extensive literature concerning this
method.
b.

Interference by Fluorescence of Other Elements.

In the carbonate-

fluoride flux employed, the fluorescence of uranium excited by 3600 A light:

is for all practical purposes a specific property and the method is essentially
free from interference by other elements.

The article of Price, Ferreti

and Schwartz includes specific references and data in regard to this aspect

of the method.

In all steps of the procedure great care is taken to elimi -

nate the possibility of error from fluorescent organic compounds.
c.

Interference by Quenching.

Much more important for the applica-

tion of the method is the fact that many ions will decrease or "quench" the

fluorescence of uraninm when they are present in the flux above certain
threshold amounts.

Thus, for example, amounts of iron up to approximately

10 pg in a 0.3 g flux show no effect on the fluorescence, but above this

amount the fluorescence is quenched and is reduced by almost 50% in intensity when the amount of iron reaches approximately 100 pg.

Fortunately,

no element has been found to quench significantly in amounts less than 1.
to 0.1 ug and microgram amounts of many substances can be tolerated.

In

a general way then, it can be said that if the amount of uranium determined

is 0.1 4g or less no significant quenching will be observed for any element
present in amount equal to that of the uranium.

To prevent quenching, by

separation of the uranium from interfering elements, it is therefore only
necessary to adopt procedures that bring the weight of the most critical
quenchers to the same level as that of the uranium.

In the procedure given

below this separation is made by extracting the uranium, present as uranyl

ion in saturated aluminum nitrate solution, into an approximately equal
volume of ethyl acetate.

As an alternative to this separation procedure, consider the amounts
of the possible interfering elements expected to be associated with the ura-

nium.

If the amounts accompanying 0.1 pg of uranium fall in order of magnitude below the threshold quenching amounts, it is possible to transfer
directly to the fusion step without separating the uranium.

The reliability

of this approach is somewhat uncertain due to the possible introduction of
quenching elements present as impurities in the rather large amounts of

on

Sane

r

on

1

reagents required to dissolve the filter paper samples.

Because of the

Select target paragraph3