Separation of no-carrier-added 113,117mSn and 113m,114mIn from alpha particle irradiated natural cadmium target

Abstract

A natural cadmium foil was irradiated by 42 MeV α-particles to produce 113,117mSn, 111,113m,114mIn simultaneously in the target matrix. After the complete decay of short lived radionuclides, long-lived NCA products were separated sequentially from the bulk cadmium by liquid–liquid extraction using di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (HDEHP) dissolved in cyclohexane as organic phase and HCl as aqueous phase. At the optimum condition, 10−2 M HCl and 5 % HDEHP, NCA In along with NCA Sn radionuclides (75 %) were separated from the bulk Cd resulting to high separation factors of 2.7 × 104 (D In/D Cd) and 500 (D Sn/D Cd), respectively. The NCA In was stripped back completely to the aqueous phase by 6 M HCl leaving NCA Sn in the HDEHP phase with a separation factor (D Sn/D In) of 3.94 × 106.