Enrichment of Potassium Isotopes with Macrocyclic Polyether Potassium Complexes

✍ Scribed by Beat Schmidhaltcr; Ernst Schumacher

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: German
• Weight: 374 KB
• Volume: 65
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0018-019X
• DOI: 10.1002/hlca.19820650602

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Enrichment of the potassium isotopes is achieved by means of the chemical exchange reaction
Where L represents a macrocyclic polyether. Dicyclohexyl‐18‐crown‐6 ((cis‐syn‐cis)‐isomer) was investigated. The single stage‐separation factor a=1+ε was determined according to the method of Glueckauf from the elution curve and iso‐topic assays. One obtains ε‐values of 1.18, 0.84. and 0.74 × 10^−3^(±5×10^−5^) at −10, 0 and 10° respectively, in favor of the heavy isotope, indicating an enthalpy of isotopic exchange of −13 ± 4 Joule mol^−1^.

The technical feasibility of a pre‐enrichment process for ^40^K starling with basic laboratory data is discussed.