RADIOCHEMICAL SEPARATIONS BY AMALGAM EXCHANGE
Radiochemical separation procedures were developed for strontium and thallium by amalgam exchange techniques. Radioactive tracers were used to determine the degree of separation of the desired element obtained by this procedure. The simple procedure requires no special equipment and can be carried out in a few minutes. A saturated aqueous solution of potassium chloride was used as an exchange medium for strontium separation. With an optimized procedure, strontium yields of about 34% were obtained although mineral acids and alkalies above 0.1 M decrease the yield considerably due to decomposition of the amalgam. The decontamination obtained by this procedure is considerably better than that obtained by the fuming nitric acid procedure. The procedure takes about 8 minutes for overall separation while application of this method to fallout rain water samples requires about 40 minutes. This procedure can also be easily adapted to the preparation of an Y/sup 90/-free source of Sr/sup 90/. An aqueous 0.5 M sodium nitrate system was used for the exchange of thallium. Thallium yields of more than 95% were obtained while the yields of cortaminants in most cases were less than 0.1%. The yield is relatively insensitive to interferences from mineral acids, alkalies, and salts except for halogen acids and sulphites. At room temperature the procedure takes about 6 minutes while at 50 deg C it requires about 4 minutes for overall separation. The separation of thallium in the presence of fission products can be carried out in about 8 minutes with a high degree of purity. This procedure appears to have useful potentials for the separation of short-lived isotopes of thallium and can readily be modified for the determination of small amounts of thallium in meteorites, rocks, and alloys samples when used in conjunction with neutron activation analysis. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Michigan. Univ., Ann Arbor
- DOE Contract Number:
- AT(11-1)-1143
- NSA Number:
- NSA-17-034051
- OSTI ID:
- 4657106
- Report Number(s):
- TID-18898
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-63
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
ALLOYS
DECOMPOSITION
DECONTAMINATION
FALLOUT
FISSION PRODUCTS
GAMMA SOURCES
HYDROXIDES
IMPURITIES
ION EXCHANGE
ISOTOPE SEPARATION
ISOTOPIC EXCHANGE
MERCURY ALLOYS
METEORITES
MINERAL ACIDS
NEUTRONS
POTASSIUM CHLORIDES
PREPARATION
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
RADIOCHEMISTRY
RAIN
ROCKS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SODIUM NITRATES
SOLUTIONS
STRONTIUM
STRONTIUM 90
THALLIUM
THALLIUM ISOTOPES
TRACE AMOUNTS
TRACER TECHNIQUES
WATER