Synthesis and Evaluation of Some Ion Exchange Resins for Selective Separation of Some Radioactive Isotopes

Radioisotopes are those unstable forms of an element which emit radiation and convert to stable configurations. The radioisotopes of an element have the same number of protons but have different number of neutrons. Radioactivity affects only nucleus and has no effects on electrons. The chemical properties of an atom are determined from number of electrons it has. Hence, both of stable and unstable forms of nuclei nearly have the same chemical properties. Radioisotopes are produced in nuclear reactors and cyclotrons. Nuclear reactors are best– suited to produce neutron–rich radioisotopes such as Molybdenum–99 and Iodine –131, while cyclotrons are best–suited to produce proton–rich radioisotopes such as fluorine–18. Due to the wide-spread applications of both of Molybdenum-99 and Iodine-131 , the efforts in this work were directed to synthesize strong anion exchange resins then the ability of these synthesized resins to remove Molybdenum-99 and Iodine-131 from aqueous solutions was investigated under different batch experimental conditions. The chromatographic separation of Molybdenum-99 from Iodine-131 was studied using different eluents