Year
2012
Abstract
Scintillating technetium (99Tc) selective ion exchange resins have been developed and evaluated for equilibrium capacities and detection efficiencies. These resins can be utilized for the in-situ concentration and detection of low levels of pertechnetate anions (99TcO4-) in natural waters. Three different polystyrene type resin support materials were impregnated with varying amounts of tricaprylmethylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) extractant, several different scintillating fluors and wavelength shifters. The prepared resins were contacted batch-wise to equilibrium over a wide range of 99TcO4- concentrations in natural water. The measured capacities were used to develop Langmuir adsorption isotherms for each resin. 99Tc detection efficiencies were determined and up to 71.4 ± 2.6% was achieved with some resins. The results demonstrate that a low level detection limit for 99TcO4- in natural waters can be realized.