0000000000178718
AUTHOR
A. Nähler
An EC-branch in the decay of 27-s 263Db: Evidence for the isotope 263Rf
Summary 27-s 263Db was produced in the 249Bk ( 18O, 4n) reaction at 93 MeV. The activity was transported by a He/KCl-jet to the laboratory where it was collected for 15 min and then subjected to a chemical separation specific for group-4 elements. The activity was dissolved in 0.5 M unbuffered α-HiB and eluted from a cation-exchange column. The effluent was made 9 M in HCl and group-4 tetrachlorides were extracted into TBP/Cyclohexane which was evaporated to dryness on a Ta disc. The Ta discs were assayed for α and SF activity. A SF activity with a half life on the order of 20 min was observed and assigned to the nuclide 263Rf. It is formed by electron-capture decay of 263Db with a decay br…
Digital liquid-scintillation counting and effective pulse-shape discrimination with artificial neural networks
Abstract A typical problem in low-level liquid scintillation (LS) counting is the identification of α particles in the presence of a high background of β and γ particles. Especially the occurrence of β-β and β-γ pile-ups may prevent the unambiguous identification of an α signal by commonly used analog electronics. In this case, pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) and pile-up rejection (PUR) units show an insufficient performance. This problem was also observed in own earlier experiments on the chemical behaviour of transactinide elements using the liquid-liquid extraction system SISAK in combination with LS counting. α-particle signals from the decay of the transactinides could not be unambigu…
Level lifetimes in neutron-rich Ru isotopes
The neutron-rich Ru isotopes are situated between the strongly deformed Sr-Zr region with axial deformation of f l _ 0.40 [1] and the spherical Cd-Sn region. Evidence for triaxiality of even-even Ru isotopes has been presented in [2-5], and lifetimes of some of their 2 + states have been measured in fission studies [6-9]. It seems, however, that in these experiments the nearly identical energies of the 2 + ---* 0 + transitions in l~ and 11~ could not be separated. Therefore, high-resolution measurements are required in order to perceive the evolution of deformation with increasing neutron number. So far only few measurements by the delayed-coincidence method [10] have been performed on chem…
Application of fast solvent extraction processes to studies of exotic nuclides
Fast solvent extraction is a chemical separation method, which can be applied to study exotic nuclides. Since about 1970 the SISAK technique, which is an on-line method based on multi-stage solvent extraction separations, has been successfully used to investigate the nuclear properties of β-decaying nuclides with half-lives down to about one second. During the last decade it has become possible to produce transactinide elements in high enough yields to investigate their chemical properties on a one-atom-at-a-time scale. For this purpose it was necessary to improve and change the detection part of the SISAK system in order to be capable to detect spontaneously fissioning and α-decaying nucli…
Shape coexistence near the double-midshell nucleus 111Rh
The decay of 111Ru obtained from fast on-line chemical and mass separation has been investigated by β-γ-t and γ-γ coincidence techniques. Earlier spin and parity assignments of 111Rh levels based on extrapolations of level systematics are confirmed. In particular, the K=1/2 intruder band is supported by the hindrance of E2 transitions between deformed and spherical states and enhancement of intraband E2 transitions. The excitation energies of intruder band members in Rh isotopes show a minimum at 109Rh64, with two neutrons less than 111Rh at the N=66 midshell. This trend, which differs from the one in the higher-Z neighbouring elements Ag and Cd with minima at N=66, follows the evolution of…
Review of the SISAK system in transactinide research
Abstract The performance of the SISAK 1 liquid–liquid extraction system applied in transactinide experiments has been improved with respect to the equipment itself and the way it is operated. The improvements were checked in on-line experiments, under conditions similar to those during transactinide experiments. As a result, the yield of the separation system was increased by a factor >5. Furthermore, a cleaner organic scintillation phase was obtained due to a better phase separation. This reduced the β-background, which disturbs the α-measurements. The sensitivity of the SISAK apparatus, including the gasjet and the detection system has been improved by more than one order of magnitude.
Development of new centrifuges for fast solvent extraction of transactinide elements
The H-0.3 liquid-liquid centrifuge applied for rapid and efficient separation of two liquid phases, and the HG-0.1 gas-liquid centrifuge used to separate the gas phase stemming from a gas jet transportation system and the liquid phase, have been further improved. New centrifuges have been produced of PEEK, a plastic material, which makes them resistant to most aqueous and organic solutions. The performance with respect to time behavior and phase purity is comparable to the titanium centrifuges used so far. The H-0.3 centrifuge has been applied to solvent extraction studies of Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, W and Pa from HF solutions into tri-n-octylamine.
Fluoride complexation of rutherfordium (Rf, element 104)
The fluoride complexation of the group-4 elements Zr, Hf and Rf, and of the pseudo-homolog Th, has been investigated in mixed HNO3/HF solutions by studying Kd values on both cation exchange resins (CIX) and anion exchange resins (AIX) using the automated rapid chemistry apparatus ARCA. On the CIX, the four elements are strongly retained as cations below 10-3M HF. For Zr and Hf, the decrease of the Kd values due to the formation of fluoride complexes occurs between 10-3M HF and 10-2M HF. For Rf and Th, this decrease is observed at one order of magnitude higher HF concentrations. On the AIX, for Zr and Hf, a rise of the Kd values due to the formation of anionic fluoride complexes is observed …