QUANTITIVE DETERMINATION OF ADSORBED SULFATES ON THORIA BY MEANS OF INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY. Technical Report No. III.

By utilizing the KBr-disk technique, it is possible to apply infrared analysis quantitatively to the determintion of species adsorbed from aqueous solutions on solids of large specific area. Adsorption of sulfates on thoria from aqueous sulfate solutions gave a characteristic infrared spectrum with absorbance bands occurring at 8.4, 8.9, and 9.6 mu . Absorbance measurements at these wave lengths were precise to 1 to 2% and were directly proportional to the amount of adsorbed sulfate in the disk, after compensation for thoria and sulfate crystallized in the drying process. The method outlined here determines 0.5 micromole quantities of sulfate, and was used on thoria samples having areas greater than 10 meters /sup 2/ g/sup -1/. (auth)