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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Photochemical separation of isotopes

Patent ·
OSTI ID:6130711
A method for photochemical separation or enrichment of isotopes of carbon-13 and oxygen-18 employing 123.58 nm resonance radiation of KR of selected band-width and degrees of selfabsorption in order to excite selectively to the a1 pi v' 13 state, /sup 13/C/sup 16/O, /sup 12/C/sup 18/O, or both /sup 13/C/sup 16/O and /sup 12/C/sup 18/O simultaneously, in a mixture of isotopic CO molecules where the /sup 12/C/sup 16/ isotopic molecule is in a large excess. The electronically excited isotopic CO molecules react with a second reactant to yield isotope enriched final products which can be separated; for example, ground state co as second reactant yields CO/sub 2/ and C/sub 3/O/sub 2/ products.
Assignee:
Canadian Patents and Development Ltd (Canada)
Patent Number(s):
US 4374010
OSTI ID:
6130711
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English