Recent studies of the chemical separation and characterization experiments of the first three transactinide elements, rutherfordium (Rf), dubnium (Db), and seaborgium (Sg), conducted atom-at-a-time ...in liquid phases, are reviewed. A short description on experimental techniques based on partition methods, specifically automated rapid chemical separation systems, is also given. A newly developed experimental approach to investigate single atoms of the heaviest elements with an electrochemical method is introduced. Perspectives for liquid-phase chemistry experiments on heavier elements are briefly discussed.
Performing experiments with transactinide elements demands highly sensitive detection methods due to the extremely low production rates (one
-atom
-at
-a
-time conditions). Preseparation with a ...physical recoil separator is a powerful method to significantly reduce the background in experiments with sufficiently long-lived isotopes (
t
1/2≥0.5
s). In the last years, the new gas-filled TransActinide Separator and Chemistry Apparatus (TASCA) was installed and successfully commissioned at GSI. Here, we report on the design and performance of a Recoil Transfer Chamber (RTC) for TASCA—an interface to connect various chemistry and counting setups with the separator. Nuclear reaction products recoiling out of the target are separated according to their magnetic rigidity within TASCA, and the wanted products are guided to the focal plane of TASCA. In the focal plane, they pass a thin Mylar window that separates the ∼1
mbar atmosphere in TASCA from the RTC kept at ∼1
bar. The ions are stopped in the RTC and transported by a continuous gas flow from the RTC to the ancillary setup. In this paper, we report on measurements of the transportation yields under various conditions and on the first chemistry experiments at TASCA—an electrochemistry experiment with osmium and an ion exchange experiment with the transactinide element rutherfordium.
The study of the interactions among metals, minerals, and humic substances is essential in understanding the migration of inorganic pollutants in the geosphere. A considerable amount of organic ...matter in the environment is associated with clay minerals. To understand the role of organic matter in the environment and its association with clay minerals, a hybrid clay-based material (HCM), montmorillonite (STx-1)–melanoidin, was prepared from l-tyrosine and l-glutamic acid by the Maillard reaction. The HCM was characterized by elemental analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM), and thermal analysis. The presence of organic materials on the surface was confirmed by XPS and STXM. The STXM results showed the presence of organic spots on the surface of the STx-1 and the characterization of the functional groups present in those spots. Thermal analysis confirmed the existence of organic materials in the montmorillonite interlayer, indicating the formation of a composite of melanoidin and montmorillonite. The melanoidin appeared to be located partially between the layers of montmorillonite and partially at the surface, forming a structure that resembles the way a cork sits on the top of a champagne bottle.
The fission process still remains a main factor that determines the stability of the atomic nucleus of heaviest elements. Fission half-lives vary over a wide range, 10−19−1024 s. Present experimental ...techniques for the synthesis of the superheavy elements that usually measure α-decay chains are sensitive only in a limited range of half-lives, often 10−5−103 s. In the past years, measurement techniques for very short-lived and very long-lived nuclei were significantly improved at the gas-filled recoil separator TASCA at GSI Darmstadt. Recently, several experimental studies of fission-related phenomena have successfully been performed. In this paper, results on 254−256Rf and 266Lr are presented and corresponding factors for retarding the fission process are discussed.
The isotopic distribution of nuclei produced in the 50Ti + 249Cf reaction has been studied at the gas-filled recoil separator TASCA at GSI Darmstadt, which separates ions according to differences in ...magnetic rigidity. The bombardment was performed at an energy around the Bass barrier and with the TASCA magnetic fields set for collecting fusion-evaporation reaction products. Fifty-three isotopes located “north-east” of 208Pb were identified as recoiling products formed in non-fusion channels of the reaction. These recoils were implanted with energies in two distinct ranges; besides one with higher energy, a significant low-energy contribution was identified. The latter observation was not expected to occur according to kinematics of the known types of reactions, namely quasi-elastic, multi-nucleon transfer, deep-inelastic collisions or quasifission. The present observations are discussed within the framework of two-body kinematics passing through the formation of a composite system.
The extraction and reduction behavior of Mo and W, lighter homologs of Sg, was studied in continuous on-line experiments at the JAEA tandem accelerator to develop a new chemistry assembly consisting ...of a membrane degasser (MDG), a flow electrolytic column (FEC), and the continuous liquid–liquid extraction apparatus (SISAK). Extraction yields of Mo and W from 0.1 M HCl/0.9 M LiCl into 4-isopropyltropolone (hinokitiol, HT) in toluene were investigated. In the reduction experiment, Mo(VI) was successfully reduced to a lower oxidation state while W(VI) showed no reduction under the given conditions.
Boron determination in blood and tissue samples is a crucial task especially for treatment planning, preclinical research, and clinical application of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Comparison ...of clinical findings remains difficult due to a variety of analytical methods, protocols, and standard reference materials in use. This paper addresses the comparability of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, quantitative neutron capture radiography, and prompt gamma activation analysis for the determination of boron in biological samples. It was possible to demonstrate that three different methods relying on three different principles of sample preparation and boron detection can be validated against each other and yield consistent results for both blood and tissue samples. The samples were obtained during a clinical study for the application of BNCT for liver malignancies and therefore represent a realistic situation for boron analysis.
Figure
A novel rigorous statistical treatment is applied to available data (May 9, 2016) from search and spectroscopy experiments on the elements with atomic numbers Z=115 and Z=117. The present analysis ...implies that the hitherto proposed cross-reaction link between α-decay chains associated with the isotopes 293117 and 289115 is highly improbable.
Products of the fusion-evaporation reaction 48Ca + 243Am were studied with the TASISpec set-up at the gas-filled separator TASCA at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, ...Germany. Amongst the detected thirty correlated α-decay chains associated with the production of element Z=115, two recoil-α-fission and five recoil-α–α-fission events were observed. The latter five chains are similar to four such events reported from experiments performed at the Dubna gas-filled separator, and three such events reported from an experiment at the Berkeley gas-filled separator. The four chains observed at the Dubna gas-filled separator were assigned to start from the 2n-evaporation channel 289115 due to the fact that these recoil-α–α-fission events were observed only at low excitation energies. Contrary to this interpretation, we suggest that some of these recoil-α–α-fission decay chains, as well as some of the recoil-α–α-fission and recoil-α-fission decay chains reported from Berkeley and in this article, start from the 3n-evaporation channel 288115.
The isotopic distribution of nuclei produced in the 50Ti + 249Cf reaction has been studied at the gas-filled recoil separator TASCA at GSI Darmstadt, which separates ions according to differences in ...magnetic rigidity. The bombardment was performed at an energy around the Bass barrier and with the TASCA magnetic fields set for collecting fusion-evaporation reaction products. Fifty-three isotopes located “north-east” of 208Pb were identified as recoiling products formed in non-fusion channels of the reaction. These recoils were implanted with energies in two distinct ranges; besides one with higher energy, a significant low-energy contribution was identified. The latter observation was not expected to occur according to kinematics of the known types of reactions, namely quasi-elastic, multi-nucleon transfer, deep-inelastic collisions or quasifission. The present observations are discussed within the framework of two-body kinematics passing through the formation of a composite system.
PDF
