Fundamental Study of Light Rare-earth Element Separation for Radioactive Isotope Analysis using Gas Pressurized Extraction Chromatography

MasterA new method for chemical separation of light rare-earth elements (LREEs) using gas-pressurized extraction chromatography (GPEC) is described. GPEC is a microscale column chromatography system that features a constant flow of solvents, which is created by pressurized nitrogen gas. The flow rate of the system can be easily modified by changing Nitrogen gas pressure, which enhances column stability. The separation column with a Teflon tubing was packed with LN resin. The column can be easily switched using different resin for other targeted elements. The proposed GPEC method facilitates production of lesser chemical wastes and faster separation owing to the use of low solvent volume compared to traditional column VI chromatography. We evaluated the separation of Ba, La, Ce, and Nd using various elution solvents. The reproducibility of the proposed GPEC system ranged from 2.4% to 4.9% with RSDs of recoveries, and the reproducibility of column-to-column ranged from 3.1% to 6.3% with RSDs of recoveries. The proposed technique is robust, and it can be useful for the fast separation of LREEs. Such trait can enable the technique to be utilized in other radioactive isotope separation