Use of neutron activation analysis in determination of total organic chlorine and bromine

Neutron activation analysis is practically the only high-sensitivy element-selective detection method for chlorine, bromine and iodine. This method is just ideal for organic halogen determination after separation of organically bound species from inorganic. In recent years we have analysed organic chlorine and bromine from thousands of different kind of samples with different separation methods. For water samples we have used activated-carbon adsorption and for solid samples mostly propanone or combined alkaline/propanone extraction before activated-carbon adsorption. Inorganic chlorides were removed from the carbon by nitrate wash. The detection limits for total organic chlorine and bromine are 5 and 0.5 μg/l for water (sample size 100 ml) and 0.3 and 0.1 μg/g dry weight (sample size 1 g) for sediment.