SISAK liquid-liquid extraction experiments with preseparated 257Rf

The SISAK liquid-liquid extraction system was used to extract 4.0-s 257Rf. The 257Rf was produced in the reaction 208Pb(50Ti, 1n)257Rf with 237-MeV beam energy on target, separated in the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator (BGS) and transferred to a gas jet using the Recoil Transfer Chamber (RTC). The activity delivered by the gas jet was dissolved in 6-M HNO3 and Rf was extracted into 0.25-M dibutyl-phosphoric acid in toluene. This was the first time a transactinide, i.e., an element with Z≥104, was extracted and unequivocally identified by the SISAK system. Thus, this pilot experiment demonstrates that the fast liquid-liquid extraction system SISAK, in combination with liquid-scintillation detectors, can be used for investigating the chemical properties of the transactinides. The extraction result is in accordance with the behaviour shown by the Rf group IV homologues Zr and Hf. (author)