The preparation, certification, and characterization of two new biological certified reference materials for inorganic trace analysis have been presented. They are based on two different varieties of tobacco leaves, namely, Oriental Basma Tobacco Leaves (INCT-OBTL-5), grown in Greece, and Polish Virginia Tobacco Leaves (INCT-PVTL-6), grown in Poland. Certification of the materials was based on the statistical evaluation of results obtained in a worldwide interlaboratory comparison, in which 87 laboratories from 18 countries participated, providing 2568 laboratory averages on nearly 80 elements. It was possible to establish the certified values of concentration for many elements in the new materials, that is, 37 in INCT-OBTL-5 and 36 in INCT-PVTL-6, including several toxic ones like As, Cd, Hg, Pb, and so forth. The share and the role of instrumental analytical techniques used in the process of certification of the new CRMs are discussed.

The article describes studies on the separation of uranium from acid pregnant leach solutions obtained from Polish uranium ores: dictyonema shales and sandstone rocks. Ion exchange chromatography was applied for uranium sorption, using commercially available, strongly basic anion exchanger, Dowex 1. In model experiments, the influence of degree of crosslinking of Dowex 1 on the efficiency of uranium extraction was investigated. The effect of H₂SO₄ concentration on the breakthrough curve of uranyl ions for the Dowex 1 resins, of different crosslinking: X4, X8 and X10, was examined. Unexpectedly high increase of exchange capacity of uranium was observed in case of Dowex 1X10. This gives potential opportunity of improving the effectiveness of uranium recovery process. Applying column packed with Dowex 1X10, ‘yellow cake’ with ca. 92% yield and high purity of recovered uranium was obtained. A block diagram of the procedure for uranium and lanthanides extraction from acidic leach liquor has been proposed.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are considered vital raw materials for the economy and are on the European Union’s list of critical raw materials (CRMs). Europe is mainly dependent on REE imports. This dependence could be reduced if locally available primary or secondary resources would be processed. In Poland, there are, for instance, over 5 million metric tons of phosphogypsum (PG), a fine powdery byproduct from the fertilizer industry, available near the former Wizów Chemical Plant near Bolesławiec. This material that is considered a waste in Poland contains significant amounts of REEs that could theoretically be recovered and contribute to Europe’s economy. This work is the first systematic analysis of REE leaching studies with sulfuric acid and PG from Wizów. Process parameters such as temperature, particle size, concentration of the leaching solution, and the addition of oxidant and reductant agents were tested to determine the most efficient process. Ultimately, a leaching efficiency of 99% was obtained. Lanthanum exhibited the highest leaching efficiency at almost 100%, followed by Yttrium, Neodymium, Terbium, and Dysprosium. The results of the laboratory experiments are promising and suggest that larger pilot or commercial experiments can be performed next.

Literature on the use of four chelating agents namely: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, nitrilotriacetic acid, diglycolic acid and iminodiacetic acid for the chromatographic separation of micro and macro amounts of rare earth elements was critically reviewed and supplemented with some new unpublished data from our Laboratory. Advantages and disadvantages of ion exchange chromatography both in cation and anion mode as well as ion interaction chromatography techniques, which were used for rare earth elements separation, are discussed. The usefulness of some of the chromatographic systems for micro-macro separations was discussed and demonstrated. The importance of resilience of the separation method to column overloading in some analytical and larger scale separations was emphasized. The methods described in this article might suit well for recovering of individual lanthanides and yttrium from e-waste and other industrial wastes which were fast accumulating in recent years.

High temperature gas-cooled reactors have recently gained importance as a source of electricity and process heat. Nuclear fuel used in these reactors consists of TRISO (TRiple coated ISOtropic) coated particles, where spherical grains of UO₂ or UC₂ or UCO kernel are covered with four successive layers consisting of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide. Of great importance is the chemical purity of reagents and substances used for the production of TRISO coated fuel particles. Analytical techniques ensuring the determination of elements at trace levels are inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and neutron activation analysis (NAA). They were applied in this work for the chemical characterization of substrates used for TRISO fuel production. Two analytical procedures were developed: the first, where materials are analyzed using ICP-MS, and the second with the aid of NAA. Successive stages of these procedures are described with details. Results of quantitative chemical analysis of examined substances are reported as well as detection limits for the investigated elements. Moreover, the expanded uncertainties estimated for the determined elements while employing the devised analytical procedures are presented.

The possibility of applying the system: weakly basic Amberlite IRA-68 resin-nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) solutions for the separation of rare earth elements (REE) by ion exchange chromatography was investigated. Preliminary research results revealed that the affinity of REE towards the ion exchanger is closely correlated with the stability of their negative complexes that they form with NTA. Three separate groups of lanthanides could be distinguished, i.e. light (La, Ce, Pr, Nd), medium (Y, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er) and heavy (Tm, Yb, Lu, Sc). Moreover, it seemed that within the first and third groups it was possible to individually separate elements from each other. Based on the experimentally obtained relationships, the theoretically assumed course of the ion exchange reaction of anionic REE complexes with NTA on the Amberlite IRA-68 resin was confirmed. The influence of the ion exchanger particle size, column size and composition of the mobile phase, i.e. pH, NTA and neutral salt (NaNO₃) concentration, on the chromatographic separation of REE was investigated. It has been shown that the proper selection of these parameters makes it possible not only to divide REE into the three groups mentioned above, but also to individually separate some elements, i.e. La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Tm, Yb, Lu and Sc.