Chromatographic behavior of strontium selective extractive scintillators

This paper presents the characterization of three extractive scintillation resins for simultaneous quantification and detection of radioactive strontium in aqueous solutions. Extractive scintillation resins combine extraction chromatography with scintillation radiation detection to selectively quantify non-gamma-ray emitting radionuclides in acidified solutions into a single step. The extractive scintillating resins are produced by impregnating macroporous acrylic or polystyrene resin with organic fluors PPO and DM-POPOP. The scintillating macroporous resin was subsequently impregnated with DtBuCH18C6-crown in 1-octanol or a proprietary chelating agent to produce Sr ES 3, Sr ES 10 and Sr ES 12. Resins were characterized using a combination of batch and flow-cell (column) experiments. Flow-cell experiments were conducted by packing 1.6 mm inner diameter translucent polytetrafluoroethylene tubing with the extractive scintillating resin to produce a ∼0.2 ml pore volume column. The tubing was subsequently coiled and placed between two 28.6 mm diameter photomultiplier tubes connected in coincidence. This arrangement allowed for real-time quantification of the radioactivity that was retained by the extractive scintillating resin. All extractive scintillating resins exhibited satisfied separation factor for Sr-90/Y-90 and good regeneration capability in multiplied loading. (authors)