Laser-induced photochemical enrichment of boron isotopes

Abstract

A boron trichloride starting material containing both boron-10 isotopes andoron-11 isotopes is selectively enriched in one or the other of these isotopes by a laser-induced photochemical method involving the reaction of laser-excited boron trichloride with either H2 S or D2 S. The method is carried out by subjecting a low pressure gaseous mixture of boron trichloride starting material and the sulfide to infrared radiation from a carbon dioxide TE laser. The wave length of the radiation is selected so as to selectively excite one or the other of boron-10 BCl3 molecules or boron-11 BCl3 molecules, thereby making them preferentially more reactive with the sulfide. The laser-induced reaction produces both a boron-containing solid phase reaction product and a gaseous phase containing mostly unreacted BCl3 and small amounts of sulfhydroboranes. Pure boron trichloride selectively enriched in one of the isotopes is recovered as the primary product of the method from the gaseous phase by a multi-step recovery procedure. Pure boron trichloride enriched in the other isotope is recovered as a secondary product of the method by the subsequent chlorination of the solid phase reaction product followed by separation of BCl3 from the mixture of gaseous products resulting from the chlorination.