Scintillating 99Tc Selective Ion Exchange Resins

Scintillating technetium (99Tc) selective ion exchange resins havebeen developed and evaluated for equilibrium capacities and detectionefficiencies. These resins can be utilized for the in-situconcentration and detection of low levels of pertechnetate anions(99TcO4-) in natural waters. Three different polystyrene-typeresin support materials were impregnated with varying amountsof tricaprylmethylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) extractant,several different scintillating fluors and wavelength shifters. Theprepared resins were contacted batch-wise to equilibrium over awide range of 99TcO4- concentrations in natural water. The measuredcapacities were used to develop Langmuir adsorption isothermsfor each resin. 99Tc detection efficiencies were determinedand up to 71.4 ± 2.6 percent was achieved with some resins. Theresults demonstrate that a low level detection limit for 99TcO4- innatural waters can be realized.