Boron Isotope Fractionation in Column Chromatography with Glucamine Type Fibers

Abstract

Glucamine type polymers have specific affinity toward boric acid and borate ion. Among them, Chelest Fiber GRY-L showed larger fractionation for boron isotopes than other polymers in our previous study. For this study, we used Chelest Fibers with different fiber lengths (1.0 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.3 mm) as column packing materials to perform chromatographic separation of boron isotopes. The shorter fiber has larger packing density when packed into the column using a dry method. The 0.3-mm-long fiber has a larger backpressure than fibers of other lengths. Boron adsorption capacities were measured using the breakthrough operation. At this time, the 0.5-mm-long fiber showed the highest capacity. When we measured the isotope ratio profile for fibers of different length using column chromatography, 0.5-mm-long fibers displayed the highest boron isotope fractionation. The 0.5-mm-long fiber is promising as a packing material of column chromatography for boron isotope separation. We also changed operation methods. The lower eluent concentration and the slower flow rate are suitable for boron isotope separation.