Rapid and Accurate Determination of 226Ra from Drinking Water Using Macropa-Mediated Cloud Point Extraction Coupled with ICP-MS/MS
Jegan Govindaraj, Myriame Proulx, Guillaume Blanchet-Chouinard, Steeve Roberge, Denis Giguère, Dominic Larivière · 2026
Read Rapid and Accurate Determination of 226Ra from Drinking Water Using Macropa-Mediated Cloud Point Extraction Coupled with ICP-MS/MS by Jegan Govindaraj, Myriame Proulx, Guillaume Blanchet-Chouinard, Steeve Roberge, Denis Giguère, Dominic Larivière (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13295094.txt.
Description
Jegan Govindaraj and co-authors devise a quick way to measure a radioactive element in drinking water at almost unimaginably low levels, in a 2026 analytical study. Radium-226 seeps into water from rock, settles in bone, and raises cancer risk, so regulators set strict limits. The method gathers the radium first using cloud point extraction, where a soap-like solution clouds on warming and traps the target, with a selective binder called Macropa doing the grabbing.
Tuning acidity, binder dose, and additives pushed capture above ninety-five percent from quarter-liter samples of tap and bottled water. Plasma mass spectrometry then counted the radium down to levels far below national and international guideline values. The authors note theirs is the first report of cloud point extraction applied to radium. For water utilities, the protocol promises faster, cheaper checks on a contaminant that older methods chase slowly.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jegan Govindaraj, Myriame Proulx, Guillaume Blanchet-Chouinard, Steeve Roberge, Denis Giguère, Dominic Larivière |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 45 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |