Reaction tracer

Nuclide Half-life Reaction Tracer for experiments on plants... 

Besides the investigation of isotopic exchange reactions, tracer techniques are applied in various fields of science and technology ... 

In chemical reactions, tracers can help determine the mechanism of the reaction. Nonradioactive... 

Oxygen occurs in three natural isotopic forms, 0 (99.76%), O (0.0374%), 0 (0.2039%) the rarer isotopes are used in detailed studies of the behavior of oxygen-containing groups during reactions (tracer studies). 

The slightly different physical properties of deuterium allow its concentration in ordinary hydrogen (or the concentration of a deuterium-containing compound in a hydrogen compound) to be determined. Exchange of deuterium and hydrogen occurs and can be used to elucidate the mechanism of reactions (i.e. the deuterium is a non-radioactive tracer). Methanol exchanges with deuterium oxide thus ... 

The mechanism of the reaction la not known with certainty. It is known from studies utilising as tracer that no change in the carbon skeleton occurs during the reaction, and also that unsaturated hydrocarbons can undergo reactions very similar to those of ketones thus both styiene and phenyl-acetylene can react with sulphur and morpholine to produce phenylaceto-thiomorphoUde, hydrolysis of which yields phenylacetic acid ... 

Polyester composition can be determined by hydrolytic depolymerization followed by gas chromatography (28) to analyze for monomers, comonomers, oligomers, and other components including side-reaction products (ie, DEG, vinyl groups, aldehydes), plasticizers, and finishes. Mass spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy can provide valuable composition information, including end group analysis (47,101,102). X-ray fluorescence is commonly used to determine metals content of polymers, from sources including catalysts, delusterants, or tracer materials added for fiber identification purposes (28,102,103). 

Reactions Involving an -OOF Intermediate. In controlled reactions of O2F2 and various compounds, O tracer studies and other techniques have shown that the first step ia the reaction appears to be... 

Syntheses of radioactive tracers involve all of the classical biochemical and synthetic chemical reactions used in the synthesis of nonradio active chemicals. There are, however, specialized techniques and considerations required for the safe handling of radioactive chemicals, strategic synthetic considerations in terms of their relatively high cost, and synthesis scale constraints governed by specific activity requirements. 

The small synthetic scale used for production of many labeled compounds creates special challenges for product purification. Eirst, because of the need for use of micro or semimicro synthetic procedures, the yield of many labeled products such as high specific activity tritiated compounds is often low. In addition, under such conditions, side reactions can generate the buildup of impurities, many of which have chemical and physical properties similar to the product of interest. Also, losses are often encountered in simply handling the small amounts of materials in a synthetic mixture. As a consequence of these considerations, along with the variety of tracer chemicals of interest, numerous separation techniques are used in purifying labeled compounds. 

Barium nitrate is prepared by reaction of BaCO and nitric acid, filtration and evaporative crystallization, or by dissolving sodium nitrate in a saturated solution of barium chloride, with subsequent precipitation of barium nitrate. The precipitate is centrifuged, washed, and dried. Barium nitrate is used in pyrotechnic green flares, tracer buUets, primers, and in detonators. These make use of its property of easy decomposition as well as its characteristic green flame. A small amount is used as a source of barium oxide in enamels. 

Hot atom reactions have also been used to label organic compounds with T. Irradiation of helium-3 with neutrons according to the nuclear reaction produces very energetic tritium atoms that can displace ordinary hydrogen in organic compounds. This procedure is not very selective, and the labeling pattern must be determined to enable the tritiated product to be used effectively as a tracer (34). 

A distinc tion is to be drawn between situations in which (1) the flow pattern is known in detail, and (2) only the residence time distribution is known or can be calculated from tracer response data. Different networks of reactor elements can have similar RTDs, but fixing the network also fixes the RTD. Accordingly, reaction conversions in a known network will be unique for any form of rate equation, whereas conversions figured when only the RTD is known proceed uniquely only for hnear kinetics, although they can be bracketed in the general case. 

The biogeochemical processes that generally describe the interaction of elements with particles are quite well known dissolution, flocculation, ion exchange, sorption, (co)precipitation, electron transfer, and biological uptake. In aquatic environments these reactions often occur simultaneously and competitively. In order to utilize marine tracers effectively, we must understand how elements are associated with particles and sediments. 

Nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) is used to determine the concentration and depth distribution of light elements in the near sur ce (the first few lm) of solids. Because this method relies on nuclear reactions, it is insensitive to solid state matrix effects. Hence, it is easily made quantitative without reference to standard samples. NRA is isotope specific, making it ideal for isotopic tracer experiments. This characteristic also makes NRA less vulnerable than some other methods to interference effects that may overwhelm signals from low abundance elements. In addition, measurements are rapid and nondestructive. 

Since NRA focuses on inducing specific nuclear reactions, it permits selective observation of certain isotopes. This makes it ideal for tracer experiments using stable isotopes. Generally, there are no overlap or interference effects because reactions have very different Qvalues, and thus different resultant particle energies. This permits the observation of species present at relatively low concentrations. A good example is oxygen and O can be resolved unambiguously, as they are... 

NRA is an effective technique for measuring depth profiles of light elements in solids. Its sensitivity and isotope-selective character make it ideal for isotopic tracer experiments. NRA is also capable of profiling hydrogen, which can be characterized by only a few other analytical techniques. Future prospects include further application of the technique in a wider range of fields, three-dimensional mapping with microbeams, and development of an easily accessible and comprehensive compilation of reaction cross sections. 

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