Reversed phase chromatographic separation of zirconium, niobium and hafnium tracers with HDEHP

Effective separation of the congeneric pair of elements, zirconium and hafnium and also niobium which was in admixtures with zirconium as daughter in its isotopic form were achieved through reversed phase column and paper extraction chromatographic procedures using di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (HDEHP) as the liquid exchanger. In reversed phase column chromatographic separation, the tracers, 95Zr, 95Nb and 175,181Hf, were extracted by HDEHP impregnated on kieselguhr and were sequentially eluted with 6N H2SO4+xN oxalic acid+H2O2 (where x=0.1, 0.5 and 2). Similarly, in reversed phase paper chromatographic study in which coating of HDEHP on Whatman No. 1 chromatographic paper was used as stationary phase, the mobil phase, 18N H2SO4+0.1N oxalic acid+H2O2, helped in separating the elements with favorable separation factors. Under the optimal conditions, the seperation and decontamination of the elements in both methods were found to be quantitative, as verified by γ-spectometric studies. (author) 14 refs.; 7 figs