Precise determination of Cr and Co in certified reference material of silicon nitride by neutron activation analysis using internal standardization.

Neutron activation analysis with an internal standard correction was applied to the determination of Cr and Co in a ceramics certified reference material (NMIJ CRM 8004-a silicon nitride powder). Cesium was used as an internal standard to compensate for any inhomogeneity of the neutron flux through an irradiation capsule and to improve the repeatability of gamma-ray measurements. It was found that the linearity of the calibration curves of Cr and Co was improved by using an internal standard. The analytical results of Cr and Co in NMIJ CRM 8004-a were in good agreement with those obtained by ICP-OES, ICP-sector field mass spectrometry (ICP-SFMS), and isotope dilution/ICP-SFMS for Cr. The relative expanded uncertainties (k = 2) were 1.9% for Cr and 1.5% for Co. The uncertainties were comparable to those of atomic spectrometric methods.