Liquid-liquid extraction of ultra trace amounts of technetium produced by ¹⁰⁰Mo (p, 2n) ⁹⁹mTc nuclear reaction in cyclotron

Abstract

A simple, rapid and reliable method for the selective extraction of ultra trace amounts of Tc produced by ¹⁰⁰Mo (p, 2n) ⁹⁹mTc nuclear reaction in cyclotron, using cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide salt, CTAB (a quaternary ammonium salt) is described here. Effect of various experimental parameters, viz., equilibration time, sample matrix, type of organic solvent and diverse ions on the extraction efficiency and selectivity has been investigated. The extraction of Tc has been found to be quantitative after 5 min, upon equilibration from 0.1 mol L⁻¹ HCl solution in presence of milligrams of various diverse ions. However, I⁻ and interfere in the extraction of Tc. The extracted Tc has been stripped into aqueous phase in presence of HClO₄ or sodium dodecyl sulphate and then analyzed for ⁹⁹mTc by ϒ-ray spectrometry. The ⁹⁹m Tc has been measured by ICP-MS in the range from 0.15–5.5 Bq L⁻¹ with detection limit 0.03 m Bq ml⁻¹.