Electropolishing of Aluminum at Room Temperature Using a Green DES of Choline Chloride and Propylene Glycol.

For applications of aluminum where the smoothness or reflectivity of the aluminum matters, electropolishing is necessary to polish the aluminum surface sufficiently. This electropolishing is traditionally done with hazardous solutions in non-ideal conditions, such as low-temperature perchloric acid-ethanol mixtures. Here, we describe electropolishing of aluminum using a deep eutectic system composed of propylene glycol and choline chloride, with polishing accomplished at room temperature and using an inexpensive apparatus. This polishing was performed using both 99.5 and 99.99% pure aluminum, and scanning electron microscopy images show substantial improvement with both purities of aluminum. In addition, reflectivity measurements show significant improvement over sanding of aluminum. This method provides a simple, green method for electropolishing aluminum that can be used in any research where careful polishing of aluminum is necessary.

Synthesis and radiometric evaluation of diglycolamide functionalized mesoporous silica for the chromatographic separation of actinides Th, Pa and U.

The separation of Th, Pa, and U is of high importance in many applications including nuclear power, nuclear waste, environmental and geochemistry, nuclear forensics and nuclear medicine. Diglycolamide (DGA)-based resins have shown the ability to separate many elements, however, these resins consist of non-covalent impregnation of the DGA molecules on the resin backbone resulting in co-elution of the extraction molecule during separation cycles, therefore limiting their long-term and repeated use. Covalently binding the DGA molecules onto silica is one way to overcome this issue. Herein, measured equilibrium distribution coefficients of normal extraction chromatographic DGA resin and a covalently bound form (KIT-6-N-DGA sorbent) are reported. Several differences are observed between the two systems, the most significant being observed for uranium, which demonstrated significantly lower sorption behavior on KIT-6-N-DGA. These results indicate that U can effectively be separated from Th and Pa using KIT-6-N-DGA, a task that could not be completed with the use of normal DGA alone.

Separation of 103Ru from a proton irradiated thorium matrix: A potential source of Auger therapy radionuclide 103mRh.

Ruthenium-103 is the parent isotope of 103mRh (t1/2 56.1 min), an isotope of interest for Auger electron therapy. During the proton irradiation of thorium targets, large amounts of 103Ru are generated through proton induced fission. The development of a two part chemical separation process to isolate 103Ru in high yield and purity from a proton irradiated thorium matrix on an analytical scale is described herein. The first part employed an anion exchange column to remove cationic actinide/lanthanide impurities along with the majority of the transition metal fission products. Secondly, an extraction chromatographic column utilizing diglycolamide functional groups was used to decontaminate 103Ru from the remaining impurities. This method resulted in a final radiochemical yield of 83 ± 5% of 103Ru with a purity of 99.9%. Additionally, measured nuclear reaction cross sections for the formation of 103Ru and 106Ru via the 232Th(p,f)103,106Ru reactions are reported within.