Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry

Concentration of 212Bi, 212Pb and 228Ac were tracked at different time intervals for 33 days in IAEA-RGTh-1 reference material having 2.89% Th and soil collected from ambient environment. In case of reference material, mean concentration of 232Th evaluated using gamma energy line of 228Ac (912 keV) and 212Bi (728 keV) shows a deviation of only 0.05%, and 5.66% respectively from the certified mean value of 232Th, whereas a large negative deviation of 29.9% was observed in the case of 212Pb (239 keV). Th-232 concentration in soil sample as evaluated using above three different gamma lines shows a variation of only 10-13%.

The study reveals that sodic conditions resulted in poor bio-synthesis in black gram plants and hence both chlorophyll ‘a’, ‘b’ and reducing and non-reducing sugar contents decreased with increasing levels of RSC water treatments. Incorporation of iron pyrites as an ameliorating agent significantly improved the availability of nutrients and enhanced the chlorophyll and sugar content. The Rhizobium inoculated treatments supplemented with 50 g iron pyrites pot-1 adjusted best among all the treatments and plants could withstand irrigation with 2.5 meL-1 RSC water without being adversely affected. Further, 7.5 meL-1 proved detrimental for plant growth and recorded maximum reduction in sugar and chlorophyll contents in the treatments which were not supplied with pyrites.