ELIMINATION OF ASHING IN THE DETERMINATION OF STRONTIUM AND CALCIUM IN LIQUID MILK

Abstract

A "non-ashing" analytical procedure for the determination of calcium and strontium in liquid milk is described. Milk was mixed in bulk with Dowex resin, stirred at 78 °C, and calcium and strontium eluted from the resin using 6 N HCl. The calcium was determined using a buffered oxalate precipitation procedure, followed by the modified Kramer–Tisdall method. Strontium was analyzed using flame spectrophotometry. An average of 79.4% of added strontium was recovered using the "non-ashing" technique. The method has not been tried on the determination of other radionuclides at the present time.