Zinc isotope separation with crown ether by column chromatography

Depleted 64Zn is a new useful material and can be widely used in the cooling water treatment in light water nuclear power plants. In the present work, column chromatographic zinc isotope separation was performed by crown ether resin which was synthesized by ourselfs, the experimental results shown that benzo-15-crown-5 resin could effectively separate the zinc isotopes. High temperature could improve the separation coefficient, while the migration distance has no effect on separation coefficient. The height equivalent to a theoretical plate increase with the increasing of the migration distance. The separation coefficients (68Zn/64Zn=6.03 x 10-4, 66Zn/64Zn=3.52 x 10-4, respectively) and the height equivalent to a theoretical plate (0.204 cm) were obtained by 20 meters chromatographic operation with the temperature of 328 K. (authors)