# Development of a method for measuring rare earth elements in the environment for future experiments with gadolinium loaded detectors

## TL;DR

This paper presents a new method using ICP-MS and chelating resin to accurately measure rare earth elements, including gadolinium, in environmental samples, aiding future neutrino and dark matter experiments.

## Contribution

A novel analytical approach combining chelating resin and ICP-MS for detecting rare earth elements in environmental samples, specifically addressing gadolinium measurement challenges.

## Key findings

- Successful detection of anomalous Gd levels in river water samples.
- Method effectively reduces interferences from other elements.
- Potential for baseline Gd concentration assessment in environmental studies.

## Abstract

Demand to use gadolinium (Gd) in detectors is increasing in the field of elementary particle physics, especially neutrino measurements and dark matter searches. Large amounts of Gd are used in these experiments. Therefore, to access the impacts of Gd onto the environments, it is becoming important to measure the baseline concentrations of Gd in the environments. The measurement of the baseline concentrations, however, is not easy due to interferences by other elements. In this paper, a method for measuring the concentrations of rare earth elements including Gd is proposed. In the method, an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry is utilized after collecting the dissolved elements in chelating resin. Results of the ability to detect anomalous concentrations of rare earth elements in river water samples in the Kamioka and Toyama areas are also reported.