Measurement of k0 and Q0 values for iridium isotopes

There is an increasing demand for the chemical analysis of new materials containing iridium. The k0-method is an excellent method for the analysis of new materials but measured k0-values and Q0-values have been lacking for 191Ir(n,c)192Ir, which offers greater sensitivity than 193Ir(n,c)194Ir. In this work, the Q0-values were determined for the two reactions by the two-channel method, using five irradiation channels in two research reactors in Belgium and Canada. These measured Q0-values enabled the first determination of the resonance neutron Cd transmission factors for these two capture reactions, confirming suspicions that they are much less than unity. At the two laboratories, k0-values were measured for 192Ir and 194Ir and there was good agreement between the two laboratories. The k0-values for 192Ir are original measurements, while those for 194Ir are in good agreement with previously published values.