The development of expeditious and high efficient separation method of trivalent actinides using capillary electrophoresis

It has been recognized that separation of trivalent actinides is difficult because their chemical properties are very similar. We have been studied the rapid separation of Am, Cm and Cf by means of capillary electrophoresis (CE). The separation using α-HIBA as a ligand were examined for the various conditions such as pH, length of capillary, and inner diameter of capillary, flow rate to transport, and chemical condition at inner wall capillary. We have previously got the result that the trivalent ion radius of Am and Cm were not lined up the tendency of the lanthanides when we plotted the mobility against the trivalent ion radius. To advance the repeatability, we have been tried to upgrade the injection and the fraction method of CE. We report the automation of fraction preparative isolation and the result of separation of Am, Cm and Cf. (author)