Archive for December 2011
Counting Carbon Dioxide by LSC
Prior to the introduction of liquid scintillation counting, a primary route of radiotracer analysis was to combust the organic material and detect the 14CO2 so generated in a gas phase proportional counter. Many protocols still call for combustion and 14CO2 counting, and many metabolic studies require quantitation of 14CO2 exhaled by tracer-fed animals. 14CO2 is…
Read MoreMeasurement of Radiation and Isotope Quantitation
Most research applications of radioisotopes require an eventual quantitation of the isotope, which is done by measuring the intensity of radiation emitted. Common nomenclature expresses this intensity as disintegrations per minute (DPM). The becquerel (Bq) is the SI unit for radiation, corresponding to 60 DPM (one disintegration per second). The curie, an earlier and still…
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