Equipments
Testing alpha spectrometers
Alpha spectrum of natural uranium
alpha spectrometry good practice
Alchemy mixture analysis
Isotopic ratio U-235 / U-238
Equipments
Testing alpha spectrometers
Alpha spectrum of natural uranium
alpha spectrometry good practice
Alchemy mixture analysis
Isotopic ratio U-235 / U-238
Spectrometry is done with the Model 5030 Alpha spectrometer of The Nucleus. The purpose of this file is to show you the main points of good alpha spectrometry, and not to tell you what is the true interest of alpha spectrometry for the alchemy process because if you are smart enough you already know why I am using this method of study of radiations.
New equipments have been purchased to validate results, despite the high cost of the equipment (20,000 $) it took a while to run the spectrometers because of high vacuum pump problem.
Methods used in alpha spectrometry may be found in good technical books and papers. Calibration of the spectrometer is made using natural isotopes prepared from minerals.
Other spectrum :
Short life Po isotopes are also separated
Am-241 main pic (85.2 %) is at 5.585 MeV second pic (12.8 %) is at 5.483 MeV. Since gamma spectra of isotope corresponds to Am-241, the low value of alpha peak in the above spectrum is the result of the method used to prepare the source : Am-241 has diffused in the metal support in order to reduce risks ; It results an energy lost of alpha particules.
Separation of Am-241 requires very good microchemistry skill : few chemists are enough qualified to do it safely.
Alpha spectrum of natural uranium
After some chemical operations the alpha spectrum of natural uranium is taken :
Alpha spectrometry good practice
The analysis of alpha spectra belongs to you : you may buy an appropriate software of do it by yourself. My intention is to give you some clues to do good alpha spectra :
- To analyze actinides I prefer electrolysis on stainless steel radiochemistry discs. Since it is not so easy to buy the discs, you will have to make it. The important point is to polish the discs with papers and paste until they get a strong reflecting power. With practice you will do a very good job.
- Electrolysis : you may build the whole system
- Microprecipitation is required for radium .
Well , I tested the most usual methods of radiochemical analysis : they require a lot of expensive chemicals and are time consuming. So I decided to rethink a convenient method to analyse drops ( a few μl ) of the alchemy solution.
It quickly appeared that a fast , efficient and low cost method may be employed :
The piece of chromatogram is put in the plastic vial used for electrolysis. Water is added, then maleic acid and a drop of sulfuric acid. The deposit on the steel disc is very thin.Paper chromatography of 5 μl of solution The chromatogram is cut in 4 pieces Each piece of chromatogram is analyzed for alpha spectrometry
A Ring Oven may be used to make chemical operations on a single drop in order to separate interferences.A typical result is given below :
The highest secret of alchemy process is the enrichment of the raw material, that is to say an increase of the ratio U-235 / U-238 . So it is important to know how to measure the increase during the steps that require a good knowledge of chemistry.
After this difficult operation the alchemy process becomes a child game, your only job is to carefully control the heating.Using the same conditions for uranium separation and electrolysis you get relevant results that may be compared. The method is quite useful when mass spectrometer is not available and, in the case of alchemy operations, it has been proved to be very efficient.
Here is the alpha spectra of the Alchemy Mercury after the the first cycle of operations
Using a method given by a different alchemist , I got a better result , with α = 2,138 300 % increase of U-235 concentration in the first run. U-234 is also extracted.α = 1,30 80% increase of U-235 concentration.
Copyright © 2004
This Home Page was created ,mercredi 3 mars 2004
Most recent revision Saturday 7 April 2007
