Cobalt, Mossbauer absorption/emission

In order to dissipate the recoil energy Mossbauer was the first to use atoms in solid crystal lattices as emitters and also to cool both emitter and absorber. In this way it could be shown that the 7-ray emission from radioactive cobalt metal was absorbed by metallic iron. However, it was also found that if the iron sample were in any other chemical state, the different chemical surroundings of the iron nucleus produce a sufficient effect on the nuclear energy levels for absorption no longer to occur. To enable a search for the precisely required absorption frequency, a scan based on the Doppler effect was developed. It was noted that a velocity of 102 ms-1 produced an enormous Doppler shift and using the same equation (7) it follows that a readily attainable displacement of the source at a velocity of 1 cms-1 produces a shift of 108 Hz. This shift corresponds to about 100 line-widths and provides a reasonable scan width. 

Mossbauer Measurements. Co-Mo catalysts cannot be studied directly in absorption experiments since neither cobalt nor molybdenum has suitable Mossbauer isotopes. However, by doping with 57Co the catalysts can be studied by carrying out Mossbauer emission spectroscopy (MES) experiments. In this case information about the cobalt atoms is obtained by studying the 57Fe atoms produced by the decay of 57Co. The possibilities and limitations on the use of the MES technique for the study of Co-Mo catalysts have recently been discussed (8., 25.). 

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