Study on the feasibility of obtaining highly enriched Carbon-13 in one- and two- stage modes of laser separation process

Abstract

The feasibility of obtaining highly enriched (13C & 80%) carbon-13 by isotope-selective IR multiphoton dissociation (MPD) of Freon 22 (CF2HCl) molecules in one- and two-stage modes of the process in an apparatus with the intracavity arrangement of the separation reactor, which resembled current technological facilities in its basic characteristics, was studied. The one-stage separation scheme was realized using the selective MPD of Freon 22 by which13C is concentrated in the dissociation product tetrafluoroethylene (C2F4). Carbon-13 concentrations in the product and MPD yields were measured depending on the laser radiation frequency and Freon 22 and bath gas (nitrogen) pressure. At the chosen irradiation geometry and a laser pulse repetition rate of 30 Hz,13C concentrations of 83 and 89% in the final product with the production rate of ∼36 and ∼7 mg13C/h were attained. The two-stage separation scheme was furnished on the basis of isotopically selective dissociation of the intermediate product CF2HI enriched in13C by its buildup process upon irradiation of a CF2HCl mixture with HI. The final product in this case was CF2H2 having a13C concentration of 98 ± 1.5%. The production rate of the two-stage laser separation process was ∼22 mg13C/h.