Selective scintillation resins for radioactivity analysis: From extractant development to method application

[eng] The present PhD thesis focuses on developing innovative strategies for the fast, accurate, reliable, and environmentally friendly determination of radionuclides. This has included developing new scintillating materials and analytical methodologies that address the limitations of current conventional methods. For this purpose, two different selective scintillating materials were developed. The first one was a PSresin intended for the determination of the gross alpha parameter (α‐ PSresin), and included the synthesis and optimization of the used extractant, its immobilization, and the scaling‐up for commercial purposes. The second material was a scintillating ion imprinted polymer for 55Fe, being the first selective and scintillating imprinted material for radioanalytical purposes. Additionally, the potential of computational tools for the design of new extractants was evaluated, demonstrating their effectiveness in reducing development costs and time. From the analytical point of view, specific working methodologies have been developed providing satisfactory results and becoming a green and fast alternative for radionuclide determination compared to conventional methods. In particular, a new analytical method has been developed for the gross alpha parameter using the α‐PSresin developed in this PhD thesis. Furthermore, novel analytical methods were established for the determination of plutonium isotopes and radiostrontium using the existing AL‐ PSresin and CE‐PSresin, respectively. In addition, sequential methodologies allowing the tandem determination of these radionuclides were also successfully developed using both PSresins in combination. The application of the developed methodologies for radionuclide analysis in this study have demonstrated to reduce the analysis time, cost and use of toxic reagents compared to the conventional methods, all while keeping equal or lower limits of detections. These methods represent an accurate and reliable alternative for environmental monitoring and decommissioning purposes, with the added benefit of being environmentally conscious.