Liquid scintillation counting of tritium in small volumes of scintillator solution

Modern scintillator solutions for counting aqueous samples are designed to hold up to their equivalent volume of water. Thus, in experiments where the aqueous sample is only 5 to 50 ..mu..l of total volume, it is not necessary to use 10 ml of scintillator solution. This paper presents results showing that 200 ..mu..l of volume (sample plus scintillator solution) can be measured and the amount of tritium (disintegrations per minute, (dpm)) determined. All samples were measured on either a Beckman LS 6800 or LS 2800 with dpm data reduction and using Hnumber as the quench monitoring means.