Separation Science and Technology, Vol.54, No.10, 1661-1668, 2019
Production yield of residues in B-11+Nb-93 reaction and separation of trace scale Pd from bulk Nb using liquid-liquid extraction
The yields of Pd-101,Pd-100,Pd-99, Rh-101m,Rh-100,Rh-99m, Ru-97 from B-11+Nb-93 reactions are measured at energies within 30-63 MeV, and are compared with the theoretical model calculations. A chemical separation method has been developed to extract the minuscule amount of Pd from the bulk Nb using cation exchanger di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (HDEHP) as an organic phase in liquid-liquid extraction (LLX). The chemical separation was achieved using stable Pd and Nb isotopes simulating the B-11(Nb-93,xn)Pd-101,Pd-100 reaction. The concentration of stable isotopes was monitored using the Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). The optimum separation condition was obtained at 1% HDEHP and 1M HNO3 that led to a separation factor of 10(3).