SEPARATION OF SAMARIUM ISOTOPES BY A CROWN ETHER

ABSTRACT

Samarium isotopes were fractionated in a liquid-liquid extraction system using dicychlohexano-18-crown-6. High precision isotope ratio measurements with a multicollector mass spectrometer made it possible to evaluate the contributions of the nuclear size and shape and the nuclear spin to the chemical isotope separation effect. The maximum value of the unit mass enrichment factor (ϵ_u was observed to be 0.00161 ± 0.00002. The odd/even enrichment factor of ¹⁴⁷Sm was ϵ_O/E = −0.00101 ± 0.00062 and that of ¹⁴⁹Sm was ϵ_O/E = −0.00049 ± 0.00050. Enrichment factors were affected by nuclear mass, nuclear volume and nuclear spin in addition to vibrational motion of molecule. The nuclear volume effect was 1.94 times as large as the nuclear mass effect. The odd/even atomic mass effect was explained with 6s²-6s6p transition in optical isotope shift of Sm I. The correction due to the nuclear spin of ¹⁴⁷Sm was ϵ_spin; = −0.0016 and that of ¹⁴⁹Sm was ϵ_spin; = −0.0014.