Title: activation analysis
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - activation analysis
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.A00096
Status: current

Definition
A kind of elemental or isotopic analysis based on the measurement of characteristic radiation from nuclides formed directly or indirectly by activation of the test portion. In general, a specification is added of the type of the incident radiation (e.g. neutron, photon) and its energy (e.g. thermal, fast).

Related Terms
- activation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/A00093
- energy: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/E02101
- neutron: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/N04116
- nuclides: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/N04257
- radiation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/R05048
- test portion: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/T06284

Sources
- Orange Book, 2nd ed., p. 210 (https://media.iupac.org/publications/analytical_compendium/)
- PAC, 1994, 66, 2513. 'Nomenclature for radioanalytical chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994)' on page 2515 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199466122513)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00096/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00096/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00096/xml

Citation: Citation: 'activation analysis' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.A00096
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-07-23T15:59:44+00:00