Radioactive isotopes and their radiation have many uses in analytical chemistry. The procedures involving them can be divided into two groups. The procedures in the first group are based on the principle that radioactive isotopes have the same chemical properties as the stable isotopes of the same element (here, the isotope effects are ignored). These analytical methods employ radioactive isotopes called tracers (see Section 10.1).

The second group of the analytical applications of radioactivity includes the methods in which the samples are irradiated by particles or electromagnetic radia­tion, and the impacts of these radiations on the matter or the change in the proper­ties of the irradiating particles or photons are studied. This means that analytical and structural information are obtained via studying the interactions of radiation with matter (see Section 10.2).