The task in this Laboratory Exercise is to record a disintegration curve of 234mPa and from this curve determine the half-life of the nuclide. The 234mPa radionuclide is obtained from a generator system consisting of an ion exchanger column with fixed 234Th where the daughter is milked by a liquid elution process. The α particles from the produced 234mPa-source is recorded by a GM-detector.
- Understand mother-daughter relations and radioactive equilibrium
- Understand how a radio-nuclide generator works and how it is used
- Understand how radioactivity is "growing in"
- Training in handling radioactive material and safety procedures
Explanation and Exercise Guide
- Student Guide - Principle Behind Mother-Daughter Relationship
- Student guide - Preparing solutions for 234mPa radionuclide generator
- Student guide - making the 234mPa radionuklide generator
- Student guide - how to measure the half life of 234mPa
- Student guide - determining the half life of 234mPa
- Instructions to teachers and supervisors
- HCl (MSDS) on 100 mL flasks, one for each student)
- DOWEX 50x4 (MSDS) (50-100 mesh)
- Uranyl Nitrate (MSDS) - UO2(NO3)2
- NaAc (MSDS) + K4[Fe(CN)6] solution (on 100 mL flasks, one for each student) (prepared by mixing 8 g NaC2H3O2 and 40 g K4[Fe(CN)6 (MSDS)] in 1 L water)
- 5% citric acid (MSDS) (on 100 mL flasks, one for each student)
- 0.1 M AgNO3 (MSDS) (on 50 mL flasks)
- Suitable columns which can be fitted with a stopper connected to a rubber ball so it can be pressurized (to quickly elute drops with short lived 234Pa from the column).
- Stop watches (one for each student)
- Sample holders to catch eluted drops from the colund and which can be mounted conveniently in the detector chamber
- Detectors - GM counters works well, but we have also used plastic scintillators mounted on PMTs and NaI-detectors. High efficiency is necessary to get good counting statistics even after the first 5-6 minutes.
- Chemical safety - nothing particulary dangerous, 2 M HCl and 0.1 M AgNO3 should of course be handled according to normal safety precations. DOWEX residues and waste should be collected and handled according to normal procedures.
- Rad. safety - very small amounts of uranyl nitrate is used, so rad. safety is mostly about regulations and not a real healt hazzard. Remember to collect the DOWEX from the ion-exchange collumns in separate containers as it is contaminated with 24-day 234Th (will be none-radioactive after one year).