294 SCANDIUM 



Intake Levels. Traces of scandium are widely distributed in rocks, 

 but there is little or no information in regard to its occurrence in biological 

 material. 



Radioassay. Preparation Sc-46-P appears to be the one of choice from 

 the standpoint of specific activity and lack of radiocontamination. 

 Actually the Ca^^ contamination in the irradiation unit would offer little 

 difficulty, especially if all measurements were made with about GO-mg/cm^ 

 absorber to eliminate any Ca"*^ beta contribution. Gamma counting will 

 probably be preferred, provided the loss of sensitivity can be accepted. 



Chemistry. Methods are not available for estimation of scandium in 

 biological materials. Presumably, wet- or dry-ashing methods can be 

 employed. Reference (Sc-1) may be consulted for details of various sep- 

 aration and analytical procedures. A gravimetric method has been 

 described based on separation of other ions that react with 8-quinolinol 

 and then precipitation of the scandium w'ith this compound (Sc-2). 



Sc-1. Sandell, E. B.: " Colorimetric Determination of Traces of Metals," 2d ed., 



Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1950. 

 Sc-2. Pokras, Lewis, and Peter M. Bernays: Determination of Scandium with 8-Quino- 



linol, Anal. Chem., 23: 757-759 (1951). 



