The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 11 No 1 (2007): 65 – 69

 

 

²¹⁰Po AND ²¹⁰Pb ACTIVITY CONCENTRATION IN THE CORAL BANDS OF PULAU TUBA, LANGKAWI

 

Lee Jen-Nie¹, Zaharuddin Ahmad²  and C.A.R. Mohamed^*1

 

¹Marine Ecosystem Research Center, Faculty of Science & Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,

43600 Bangi, Selangor. Malaysia

²Malaysian Institute for Nuclear Technology Research, Bangi,

43600 Kajang, Selangor

 

*Corresponding author: carmohd@ukm.my

 

Abstract

We examined the concentrations of 210Po and 210Pb in each layers of coral banding of coral skeletons. Concentrations of ²¹⁰Po  and ²¹⁰Pb  in massive corals (i.e. Porites, Favites, Platygyra and Goniostrea) from Pulau Tuba,  Langkawi were measured using the Alpha-Spectrometry. The concentrations of 210Po were higher than the concentrations of 210Pb. This may due to continuing source of 210Po from 210Pb. Highest concentration on 210Po in coral banding was 48.30 ± 28.53 Bq/kg, meanwhile for 210Pb was 12.86 ± 5.80 Bq/kg. The ratios of  210Po/210Pb were in the range of 2.21 to 5.49. The variation activity concentrations of 210Po and 210Pb in the coral bands are important to consider in using coral as retrospective study of environmental changes. The coral can represent the total of 210Pb and 210Po in the surrounding water for the past few years

 

Keywords: Polonium, lead, coral band, spectrometry

 

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