Researchers have developed a new chemical separation method that is vastly more efficient than conventional processes, opening the door to faster discovery of new elements, easier nuclear fuel reprocessing, and, most tantalizing, a better way to attain actinium-225, a promising therapeutic isotope for cancer treatment.

Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new separation method that is vastly more efficient than conventional processes, opening the door to faster discovery of new elements, easier nuclear fuel reprocessing, and, most tantalizing, a better way to attain actinium-225, a promising therapeutic isotope for cancer treatment.

The research, «Ultra-Selective Ligand-Driven Separation of Strategic Actinides,» has been published in the journal Nature Communications. The authors are Gauthier Deblonde, Abel Ricano, and Rebecca Abergel of Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division. «The proposed approach offers a paradigm change for the production of strategic elements,» the authors wrote.

«Our proposed process appears to be much more efficient than existing processes, involves fewer steps, and can be done in aqueous environments, and therefore does not require harsh chemicals,» said Abergel, lead of Berkeley Lab’s Heavy Element Chemistry group. «I think this is really important and will be useful for many applications.»

Berkeley Lab is one of a handful of institutions around the world studying the nuclear and chemical properties of the heaviest elements. Most of them were, in fact, discovered at Berkeley Lab in the last century. Abergel’s group has previously published discoveries on berkelium and plutonium and treatments for radioactive contamination.

Abergel noted that the new separation method achieves separation factors that are many orders of magnitude higher than current state-of-the-art methods. The separation factor is a measure of how well an element can be separated from a mixture. «The higher the separation factor, the fewer contaminants there are,» she said. «Usually when you purify an element you’ll go through the cycle many times to reduce contaminants.»

With a higher separation factor, fewer steps and less solvents are needed, making the process faster and more cost-effective. For example, the scientists demonstrated for one of the three systems they purified that they could reduce the process from 25 steps to just two steps.

Story Source: Materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.