High single-step enrichment of rare stable isotopes by ion laser formaldehyde photo-predissociation
Very high single-step enrichment of deuterium, carbon-13, oxygen-17, and oxygen-18 has been achieved by photo-predissociation of formaldehyde with tunable near-ultraviolet ion lasers. Insertion of an intracavity etalon permitted tuning the XeIII 345.425nm ion laser transition over 10 GHz and the NeII transitions at 337.824nm and 332.375nm over 16 GHz to permit optimized isotopic selectivity of each formaldehyde isotope having absorption within the ion laser tuning range. Natural abundance deuterium was enriched 60-fold at 345nm to yield hydrogen gas with 1.6 percent HD, and 180-fold enrichment of deuterium as D/sub 2/ was achieved at 332nm. Substituting neon-22 blue-shifted laser emission 7 GHz to permit 33-fold enrichment of natural abundance carbon-13 to yield 29 percent /sup 13/CO photoproduct. D/sub 2/CO was used to achieve 44-fold oxygen-18 enrichment at 332nm and 27-fold oxygen-17 enrichment at 338nm also using the neon-22 ion laser. Radical production in D/sub 2/CO is less than 1 percent at 332nm. Isotope scrambling is 24 percent for C-13 using H/sub 2//sup 13/CO at 332nm, 4 percent for 0-18 using D/sub 2/C/sup 18/O at 332nm, and 9 percent for 0-17 using D/sub 2/C/sup 17/O at 338nm.
- Research Organization:
- California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 7128330
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-78065; CONF-760961-6; TRN: 77-005808
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Electro-optics laser conference and exposition, New York, NY, USA, 14 Sep 1976
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
CARBON 13
LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION
DEUTERIUM
OXYGEN 17
OXYGEN 18
FORMALDEHYDE
ALDEHYDES
CARBON ISOTOPES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPE SEPARATION
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN ISOTOPES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STABLE ISOTOPES
400303* - Organic Chemistry- Isotope Exchange & Isotope Separation- (-1987)