Production and separation of carrier-free ⁷Be

N Gharibyan; K J Moody; S J Tumey; T A Brown; J D Despotopulos; S A Faye; K E Roberts; D A Shaughnessy

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.10.028

Production and separation of carrier-free ⁷Be

Appl Radiat Isot. 2016 Jan:107:199-202. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.10.028. Epub 2015 Oct 24.

Authors

N Gharibyan¹, K J Moody², S J Tumey³, T A Brown³, J D Despotopulos², S A Faye⁴, K E Roberts², D A Shaughnessy²

Affiliations

¹ Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue L-236, Livermore, CA 94551, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue L-236, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
³ Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue L-397, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
⁴ Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

PMID: 26524406
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.10.028

Abstract

A high-purity carrier-free (7)Be was efficiently isolated following proton bombardment of a lithium hydroxide-aluminum target. The separation of beryllium from lithium and aluminum was achieved through a hydrochloric acid elution system utilizing cation exchange chromatography. The beryllium recovery, +99%, was assessed through gamma spectroscopy while the chemical purity was established by mass spectrometry. The decontamination factors of beryllium from lithium and aluminum were determined to be 6900 and 300, respectively.

Keywords: (7)Be; CAMS; Carrier-free; Ion-exchange; Nuclear forensics.