Anreicherung der Lithium-Isotope durch Gegenstromelektrolyse in wäßriger Lösung

Abstract

An essentially better developed form of an electrolytic separation process is described, allowing the separation of ions in aqueous solution in a continuous manner. It is of high separative power and therefore especially designed for the separation of ions with very small difference in the ion mobility. In comparison with electrophoresis it has the advantage of much greater amounts processable at one time. The process was applied to enrich the natural Lithium isotopes which have an unusual small difference in their ion mobilities of only 0.08%. Using an apparatus of more than 3000 theoretical plates the separation factor was 12.8. The content of Li-6 in the samples was determined by activation analysis.