Ehsan Zolfonoun - NFCRS, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
Seyad Mohammad Reza Pakzad - NFCRS, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
Maryam Salahinejad - Environmental Laboratory, NSTRI, Tehran, Iran

A simple and rapid method for the determination of ۱۳۷Ba isotope abundances in water samples by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) coupled with least-squares support vector machine regression (LS-SVM) is reported. By evaluation of emission lines of barium, it was found that the emission line at ۴۹۳.۴۰۸ nm provides the best results for the determination of ۱۳۷Ba abundances. After recording the emission spectra in the range of ۴۹۳.۳۶۲-۴۹۳.۴۶۷ nm, quantification of ۱۳۷Ba abundances was performed with the aid of LS-SVM algorithm. The obtained results revealed that using LS-SVM as a nonlinear modeling approach improves the predictive quality of the developed models compared with partial least squares (PLS) method. The calculated results proved that the combination of ICP-OES and LS-SVM is a suitable and low cost technique for the determination of ۱۳۷Ba abundances. Performance of the proposed method was examined through measuring ۱۳۷Ba abundances in synthetic mixtures and water samples.

۱۳۷Ba, ICP-OES, LS-SVM, PLS