Rare earth elements isotopes

Figure 47.6). By choosing which isotope to mea.sure, all of the rare earth elements can be analyzed accurately and quickly following their ion-exchange separation into just two fractions. 

Laser isotope separation techniques have been demonstrated for many elements, including hydrogen, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sHicon, sulfur, chlorine, titanium, selenium, bromine, molybdenum, barium, osmium, mercury, and some of the rare-earth elements. The most significant separation involves uranium, separating uranium-235 [15117-96-1], from uranium-238 [7440-61-1], (see Uranium and uranium compounds). The... 

Courtois, C. and Clauer, N. (1980) Rare earth elements and strontium isotopes of polymetallic nodules from southeastern Pacific Ocean. Sedimentology, 27, 687-695. 

Geological, mineralogical and geochemical features of these deposit types (distribution, age, associated volcanism, host and country rocks, fluid inclusions, opaque, gangue and hydrothermal alteration minerals, chemical features of ore fluids (temperature, salinity, pH, chemical composition, gaseous fugacity, isotopic compositions (O, D, S, Sr/ Sr, Pb), rare earth elements)) were summarized. 

Tracer materials are defined as any product included in the test substance that can be recovered analytically for determining the drift from the application. This may be the active ingredient in an actual tank mix, or it may be a material added to the tank mix for subsequent detection. The selection of an appropriate tracer for assessing deposition rates in the field is critical to the success of a field study. Tracer materials such as low-level active ingredient products, colored dyes, fluorescent dyes, metallic salts, rare earth elements and radioactive isotopes have been used with varying degrees of success in the field. An appropriate tracer should have the following characteristics ... 

Elderfield and Greaves [629] have described a method for the mass spectromet-ric isotope dilution analysis of rare earth elements in seawater. In this method, the rare earth elements are concentrated from seawater by coprecipitation with ferric hydroxide and separated from other elements and into groups for analysis by anion exchange [630-635] using mixed solvents. Results for synthetic mixtures and standards show that the method is accurate and precise to 1% and blanks are low (e.g., 1() 12 moles La and 10 14 moles Eu). The method has been applied to the determination of nine rare earth elements in a variety of oceanographic samples. Results for North Atlantic Ocean water below the mixed layer are (in 10 12 mol/kg) 13.0 La, 16.8 Ce, 12.8 Nd, 2.67 Sm, 0.644 Eu, 3.41 Gd, 4.78 Dy, 407 Er, and 3.55 Yb, with enrichment of rare earth elements in deep ocean water by a factor of 2 for the light rare earth elements, and a factor of 1.3 for the heavy rare earth elements. 

The chemistry of rare earth elements makes them particularly useful in studies of marine geochemistry [637]. But the determination of rare earths in seawater at ultratrace levels has always been a difficult task. Of the various methods applied, instrumental neutron activation analysis and isotope dilution mass spectrometry were the main techniques used for the determination of rare earths in seawater. However, sample preparation is tedious and large amounts of water are required in neutron activation analysis. In addition, the method can only offer relatively low sample throughputs and some rare earths cannot be determined. The main drawbacks of isotopic dilution mass spectrometry are that it is time-consuming and expensive, and monoisotopic elements cannot be determined as well. 

Trace elements and rare-earth elements (REEs) of the same calcite samples used for the stable isotope analysis have significantly lower concentration of REE as well as most trace elements relative to typical carbonatites. The total REE contents of the Ulsan carbonates range from 3 to 17 ppm, which are much lower than any igneous rocks and even lower than those of some sedimentary rocks. REE and trace-element abundances may have changed sufficiently due to alteration, thus, affecting petrogenetic... 

Nance WB, Taylor SR (1976) Rare earth element patterns and crustal evolution—I. Australian post-Archean sedimentary rocks. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 40 1539-1551 Nishio Y, Nakai S (2002) Accurate and precise lithium isotopic determinations of igneous rock samples using multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Anal Chim Acta 456 271-281 Nishio Y, Nakai S, Hirose K, Ishii T, Sano Y (2002) Li isotopic systematics of volcanic rocks in marginal basins. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 66 A556... 

Sholkovitz ER, Elderfield H, Szymczak R, Casey K (1999) Island weathering riverine sources of rare earth elements to the western Pacific Ocean. Marine Chem 68 39-57 Skulan JL, Beard BL, Johnson CM (2002) Kinetic and equilibrium Fe isotope fractionation between aqueous Fe(III) and hematite. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 66 2995-3015 Sumner DY (1997) Carbonate precipitation and oxygen stratification in Late Archean seawater as deduced from facies and stratigraphy of the Gamohaan and Frisco Formations, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa. Am J Sci 297 455-487... 

Bau M, Dulski P (1996) Distribution of yttrium and rare-earth elements in the Penge and Kuruman iron-formations, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa. Precam Res 79 37-55 Bau M, Hohndorf A, Dulski P, Beukes NJ (1997) Sources of rare-earth elements and iron in Paleoproterozoic iron-formations from the Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa evidence from neodymium isotopes. J Geol 105 121-129... 

The first isotope of this element having mass number 253 and half-life 20 days was detected in 1952 in the Pacific in debris from the first thermonuclear explosion. The isotope was an alpha emitter of 6.6 MeV energy, chemically analogous to the rare earth element holmium. Isotope 246, having a half-life 7.3 minutes, was synthesized in the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory cyclotron in 1954. The element was named Einsteinium in honor of Albert Einstein. Only microgram amounts have been synthesized. The element has high specific alpha activities. It may be used as a tracer in chemical studies. Commercial applications are few. 

Symbol Gd atomic number 64 atomic weight 157.25 a lanthanide series rare earth element electron configuration 4/ 5di6s2 partially filled / orbital common oxidation state -i-3 six stable natural isotopes Gd-152 (0.2%), Gd-154 (2.86%), Gd-155 (15.61%, Gd-156 (20.59%), Gd-157 (16.42%), Gd-157 (23.45%)... 

Symbol Ho atomic number 67 atomic weight 164.93 a lanthanide series rare earth element electron configuration [Xe]4/ii6s2 valence state +3 metallic radius (coordination number 12) 1.767A atomic volume 18.78 cc/mol ionic radius Ho3+ 0.894A one naturally occurring isotope. Ho-165. 

Steinmann, M., Stille, P., Bernotat, W. Knipping, B. 1999. The corrosion of basaltic dykes in evaporites Ar-Sr-Nd isotope and rare earth elements evidence. Chemical Geology, 153, 259-279. 

Figure 6.6 Mass spectrum of rare earth elements tREEs) measured by CE-ICP-MS with on line separation of analytes (50 nl solution volume) a) natural isotopic pattern, concentration of each REE - 800ngg b) in an irradiated tantalum target (). S. Becker and H. ]. Dietze, Int. /. Mass Spectrom. Ion Proc. 197, 1-35 (2000). Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of Chemistry.)...

Being a valuable isotope analytical technique in routine work for high precision isotope ratio measurements, TIMS is applied in many laboratories worldwide for isotope ratio measurements especially for elements with ionization potentials < 7 eV,7 such as alkali and earth alkali elements, rare earth elements (REE), uranium and plutonium. It is advantageous that the interference problem occurs relatively seldom in TIMS, especially if the negative thermal ionization technique for elements and molecules with electron affinities > 2eV (Ir, W, Os, Re, Pt, Cl and Br) is applied. TIMS with multiple ion collectors achieves a precision of up to 0.001 % thus permitting the study... 

For example, the fission products technetium and promethium are unique, in that they do not have any stable isotopes and do not occur in nature in measureable amounts. While promethium has a number of chemical analogues in the other rare-earth elements, this is not the case for technetium, and it is thus difficult to predict its behaviour in the geosphere. 

Bertram, C.J. and Elderfield, H. (1993) The geochemical balance of the rare earth elements and neodymium isotopes in the oceans. Geochim. Cosmochim.Acta, 57, 1957-1986. 

In 1945, Marinsky, Glendenin, and Coryell first identified isotopes of element 61, promethium (Pm), which was the last member of the lanthanide series of rare-earth elements to be discovered. Isotopes of this element were obtained both as products of the fission of uranium and as products of several different types of nuclear reactions, most of which involve suitable bombardment of isotopes of neodymium for example ... 

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