Towards the production of carrier-free 99Mo by neutron activation of 98Mo in molybdenum hexacarbonyl -Szilard-Chalmers enrichment

Jan Willem J van Dorp; Dravin S Mahes; Peter Bode; Hubert T Wolterbeek; Antonia G Denkova; Pablo Serra-Crespo

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.06.002

Towards the production of carrier-free ⁹⁹Mo by neutron activation of ⁹⁸Mo in molybdenum hexacarbonyl -Szilard-Chalmers enrichment

Appl Radiat Isot. 2018 Oct:140:138-145. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.06.002. Epub 2018 Jul 4.

Authors

Jan Willem J van Dorp¹, Dravin S Mahes¹, Peter Bode¹, Hubert T Wolterbeek¹, Antonia G Denkova¹, Pablo Serra-Crespo²

Affiliations

¹ Radiation Science & Technology, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands.
² Radiation Science & Technology, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands. Electronic address: P.SerraCrespo@tudelft.nl.

PMID: 30015043
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.06.002

Abstract

The neutron irradiation of molybdenum hexacarbonyl has been systematically studied to identify possible improvements for the production of molybdenum-99. After irradiation, the targets were dissolved in dichloromethane, and Szilard-Chalmers liquid-liquid extraction was carried out with aqueous extractants. The effects of the irradiation time, the aqueous phase composition and the irradiated mass were studied with a focus on the chemistry involved. Stable extraction yields of 20% were obtained with enrichment decreasing with target decomposition. Improved enrichment requires decreased decomposition.