CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF ISOMERIC TRANSITIONS: SEPARATION OF THE ISOMERS OF Te$sup 127$, Te$sup 129$, AND Te$sup 12$$sup 1$
The problem of the chemical separation of radioactive tellurium isomers was reinvestigated. The separation efficiencies obtained with end-window BETA - particle detectors for Te/sup 127/ and Te/sup 129/ are significantly less than unity and are in agreement with previously determined values. It is demonstrated, however, that these values are not proper in that they have not been corrected for differences in detection efficiencies for the different BETA particles that were observed Use of gamma spectrometry has overcome this difficulty; measurement of the relative rate of growth of an individual gamma ray, from a sample in which the equilibrium between metastable- and ground-state isomers has been disturbed by the chemical separation, determines the percent of isomer separation, independent of detection efficiency. The separation efficiencies for Te/sup 127/ and Te/sup 129/ were found to 0.984 plus or minus 0.022 and 1.0 plus or minus approximates 0.05, respectively. These results also were used in support of the concept that the chemical properties of the unstable Te species formed in internal conversion are essentially independent of the details of the nuclear decay, and are the same for all Te nuclides that decay via highly converted isomeric transitions. Application of these results to the study of the decay of Te/sup 129/ is then discussed. The apparent separation factors determined for the 0.475-, 1.12-, and 0.027-Mev gamma rays in Te/sup 129/ were, respectively, 0.952 plus or minus 0.007, 0.863 plus or minus 0.020, and 0.254 plus or minus 0.005. These values were used to obtain relative gamma -ray transition probabilities in Te/sup 129/ through an analysis of the dependence of the isomer separation process upon nuclear decay parameters. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- NSA Number:
- NSA-18-007112
- OSTI ID:
- 4110449
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Physics (U.S.), Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Physics (U.S.) Vol. Vol: 39; ISSN JCPSA
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
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