Advances in Boron Isotope Separation by Ion Exchange Chromatography

Abstract

Boron isotope separation by ion exchange chromatography is characterized by high efficiency, low energy consumption, safe operation and low equipment investment. It is a promising process for industrial scale production. The latest progress for enriching 10 B isotope by ion exchange chromatography is reviewed in this article. Currently, strongly basic anion exchange resins, weakly basic anion exchange resins and boron-specific resins are used as chromatographic column packing materials. With a brief introduction of the separation principle, the advantages and disadvantages of these resins are compared. Some elements influencing the single-stage separation factor are also discussed.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as highly efficient agents for boron removal and boron isotope separation

“…3 Although methods for boron isotope separation are in high demand for the nuclear power industry and medical treatment, the separation process is practically very difficult because of the tiny differences between its isotopes. Some methods have been observed including exchange distillation, [4][5][6] adsorption-based separation, [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] thermal ionization mass spectrometry 16,17 and the laser assisted retardation of condensation (SILARC) method, [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] among which only isotopic exchange distillation has been successfully applied in practical 10 B production. 4 Except for a small separation factor of around 1.03, disadvantages including the instability of the anisoleboron triuoride complex, severe causticity to the equipment and insecurity as a result of the toxicity of boron triuoride greatly impede the process.…”

“…Highly efficient adsorbents are desirable for both boron isotope separation (Section S1, ESI †) and boron removal (Section S2, ESI †). Various boron adsorbents, such as anion resins, 28 cation resins, 7 boron-specic resins 11 and other boron adsorbents have been explored for their isotopic separation capacity in static adsorption experiments and xed in the chromatography column as the solid phase to study dynamic separation properties.…”

“…Among the various boron adsorbents, only N-methyl-D-glucamine type resins including Amberlite IRA-743 have been widely applied in boron removal, which also exhibit the highest boron isotopic separation factor (S ¼ 1.027) 7 to date. This small separation factor makes it impossible to employ chromatography to separate boron isotopes.…”