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Microseparations of cesium and barium in glass

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Abstract

A chemical micro-separation of Cs and Ba in complex glass with a high lanthanide content is presented. High purity silica, with and without Cs and Ba fortification, was subjected to identical dissolution, microseparation, and analysis as a control glass matrix. Dissolution was performed with hot concentrated nitric and hydrofluoric acids followed by fluoride complexation with boric acid, evolution of excess boric acid as methyl borate, and finally conversion to soluble nitrate species in 3 M nitric acid. Separation was performed with a miniature gas pressurized extraction chromatography system using a column packed with Eichrom Sr resin™. High purity 3 M nitric acid was used to rinse Cs through the column and high purity 1% acetic acid was used to strip Ba from the resin. Quantitative recovery of both Cs (99.5 ± 0.7%) and Ba (99.1 ± 2.0%) was achieved in the lanthanide glass matrix and no statistically significant difference was observed in Cs or Ba recovery in the control high purity silica.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Bill Ebert (Argonne) and James Marra (Savannah River) for the lanthanide glass. We would also like to thank Bill Ulicny from Department of Homeland Security and the NTNFC program for funding this nuclear forensics research. Also, many thanks to Laura Skubal (Argonne) for use of the ICPMS. The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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  1. Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA

    Jennifer L. Steeb, Carol J. Mertz, Giselle Sandi, Dean A. Bass, Donald G. Graczyk & Margaret M. Goldberg

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  1. Jennifer L. Steeb
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  2. Carol J. Mertz
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  3. Giselle Sandi
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  4. Dean A. Bass
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  5. Donald G. Graczyk
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  6. Margaret M. Goldberg
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Correspondence to Jennifer L. Steeb.

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Steeb, J.L., Mertz, C.J., Sandi, G. et al. Microseparations of cesium and barium in glass. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 292, 757–762 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-011-1492-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-011-1492-1

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