Theory of and computer aided neutron activation analysis

Abstract

Neutron activation analysis, NAA, has become a widely used and important analytical technique, not only intrace analysis but also indetermining alloy elements and minor constituents. The microqualitative and quantitative analysis can usually be performed by NAA invarious fields, such as biology, criminology, geochemistry, cosmochemis try, industry etc. Thus, the field of application of the method is very wide. In this study, first the basic concepts and principles of NAB is introduced. The detection methods and various types of detectors are discussed. The use o f computers i n NAA problems are also given. Then, a predeveloped computer code, Gretel, which is set up for routine batch wise processing of spectrometric data obtained by GE(Li) detector sisintroduced. This code, programmed originally for the IBM 3701165 computer, is adopted to the UNIVAC 1106 computer in BU for further studies. The UNIVAC version of the program, the input and the out put data are finally recorded on to a magnetictape. Also, another computer code prepared for NAA, Corgam, which was studied previously is introduced briefly . The comparison of these two codes are given at the end of this study.