Tracer separation

A propensity for lateral flow was suggested where sediments are finegrained and strrmgly horizontally-bedded. The observations of similar, overlying breakthrough curves (BTC) and no tracer separation, regardless of saturation, in a horizontal core of the Ringold horizontally-bedded unit support... 

Flow measurements using tracers are performed in all piping systems carrying oil, gas or water including separators, compressors, injector systems, and flares. Calibration of elsewhere difficult accessible flow meters is regularly performed by the tracer methods, which are based on international standards. Tracer flow measurements are also well suited for special purposes... 

For this kind of case, a modification of the dilution method is being developed. Instead of using an external fixed-geometry measurement chamber, a suitable part of the process, e.g. a stretch of pipe, is used. A radiation detector is mounted on the outside of the pipe, and a tracer emitting sufficiently hard gamma radiation is used. As sufficient mixing can be achieved by injecting upstream the separator the radiation level found will be strictly proportional to the concentration and thus inversely proportional to the true flow rate. 

In situ measurement of the concentration of radioactive tracers in the different phases requires that the phases are separated and arranged according to density difference over the measurement cross section in a horizontal pipe. In general, the measurements are performed with two spectral gamma radiation detectors placed on top and bottom of the pipe respectively. 

Nd in samples. Unfortunately, mass spectrometry is not a selective technique. A mass spectrum provides information about the abundance of ions with a given mass. It cannot distinguish, however, between different ions with the same mass. Consequently, the choice of TIMS required developing a procedure for separating the tracer from the aerosol particulates. 

A large number of radiometric techniques have been developed for Pu analysis on tracer, biochemical, and environmental samples (119,120). In general the a-particles of most Pu isotopes are detected by gas-proportional, surface-barrier, or scintillation detectors. When the level of Pu is lower than 10 g/g sample, radiometric techniques must be enhanced by preliminary extraction of the Pu to concentrate the Pu and separate it from other radioisotopes (121,122). Alternatively, fission—fragment track detection can detect Pu at a level of 10 g/g sample or better (123). Chemical concentration of Pu from urine, neutron irradiation in a research reactor, followed by fission track detection, can achieve a sensitivity for Pu of better than 1 mBq/L (4 X 10 g/g sample) (124). 

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. 

Heavy isotopes endow the compounds in which they appear with slightly greater masses than their unlabeled counterparts. These compounds can be separated and quantitated by mass spectrometry (or density gradient centrifugation, if they are macromolecules). For example, O was used in separate experiments as a tracer of the fate of the oxygen atoms in water and carbon dioxide to determine whether the atmospheric oxygen produced in photosynthesis arose from HgO, COg, or both ... 

A rudimentary chemistry of organic derivatives of astatine is emerging, but the problems of radiation damage, product separation and tracer... 

If the ligand aliosterically affects the affinity of the receptor (antagonist binds to a site separate from that for the tracer ligand) to produce a change in receptor conformation to affect the affinity of the tracer (vide infra) for the tracer ligand (see Chapter 6 for more detail), the displacement curve is given by (see Section 4.6.3)... 

Purified LBP is obtained from the crude LBP separated in the gel filtration of the 35 kDa luciferase on Sephadex G-100 (see Fig. 8.2). The fractions of crude LBP are combined and the protein is precipitated with ammonium sulfate (75% saturation). The precipitate is dissolved in a small volume of lOmM Tris-HCl/5 mM 2-mercaptoethanol, pH 8, and a small amount of luciferin is added as a tracer. Then, the crude LBP is purified on a column of Sephadex G-200 (Hastings and Dunlap, 1986). The fractions of LBP are identified by luminescence produced by the addition of luciferase at pH 6.3 the luminescence due to the tracer luciferin is proportional to the amount of LBP in each fraction. 

Tracer Studies on the Nitro lysis of Hexamine to RDX and HMX. The formation of RDX and/or HMX molecules from the nitration or nitrolysis of Hexamethylenetetramine (Hexamine) is a complex process and has been postulated to take place via two separate paths. One involves the selective cleavage of the Hexamine molecule to the appropriate cyclic nitramine (RDX, HMX or both) depending on the specific... 

Schiesser and Lapidus (S3), in later studies, measured the liquid residencetime distribution for a column of 4-in. diameter and 4-ft height packed with spherical particles of varying porosity and nominal diameters of in. and in. The liquid medium was water, and as tracers sodium chloride or methyl orange were employed. The specific purposes of this study were to determine radial variations in liquid flow rate and to demonstrate how pore diffusivity and pore structure may be estimated and characterized on the basis of tracer experiments. Significant radial variations in flow rate were observed methods are discussed for separating the hydrodynamic and diffusional contributions to the residence-time curves. 

Although the outline of a chemical separation process could be obtained by tracer-scale investigations, the process could not be defined with certainty until study of it was possible at the actual separation plants. Therefore, the question in the summer of 1942, was as follows How could any separations process be tested at the concentration of plutonium that would exist several years later in the production plants when, at this time, there was not even a microgram of plutonium available This problem was solved through an unprecedented series of experiments encompassing two major objectives. First, it was decided to attempt the production... 

Studies of ligands which might provide specificity in binding to various oxidation states of plutonium seems a particularly promising area for futher research. If specific ion electrodes could be developed for the other oxidation states, study of redox reactions would be much facilitated. Fast separation schemes which do not change the redox equilibria and function at neutral pH values would be helpful in studies of behavior of tracer levels of plutonium in environmental conditions. A particularly important question in this area is the role of PuOj which has been reported to be the dominant soluble form of plutonium in some studies of natural waters (3,14). 

The thiazolecarboxylic acid structure (40) was also guessed in a similar way, from tracer experiments. The unknown compound was converted into the thiamine thiazole by heating at 100°C and pH 2. On paper electrophoresis, it migrated as an anion at pH 4. Tracer experiments indicated that it incorporated C-l and C-2 of L-tyrosine, and the sulfur of sulfate. The synthetic acid was prepared by carboxylation of the lithium derivative of the thiamine thiazole, and the derivatives shown in Scheme 19 were obtained by conventional methods. Again, the radioactivity of the unknown, labeled with 35S could not be separated from structure 40, added as carrier, and the molar radioactivity remained constant through several recrystallizations and the derivatizations of Scheme 17. 

Since sulfonate groups have been used in other ground-water tracers, the goal of this work was to synthesize several N-substi-tuted pyridone alkyl sulfonates which might be less susceptible to adsorption as well as more soluble. Alkyl sulfonates of varying chain lengths would be unique in a water system and separately identifiable by HPLC analysis. Two series of compounds were synthesized (Vla-c and Vlla-c). These compounds could be prepared by treating compounds III and IV with the appropriate lu-bromoalkyl sulfonate. 

These reactions are useful because they run under mild conditions, use inexpensive or easily recoverable starting materials, and have short reaction times. The major problem in purification is the separation of the sodium pyridone sulfonate from excess sodium sulfite, sodium bromide, and sodium bromoalkyl sulfonate. However, these latter compounds usually would not interfere with the use of the pyridone sulfonate as a water tracer. From a practical point of view, the pyridone sulfonates need not be purified, but can be used directly. A modified synthetic procedure involves the treatment of the pyridone sodium salt with a tenfold excess of a,iu-dibromoalkane in acetonitrile, followed by removal of the excess dibromide by vacuum distillation. The resulting product is treated with an excess of sodium sulfite in aqueous ethanol. Evaporation of the solvent yields a useful tracer. Procedures given in the experimental section were... 

Gordon and Wahl have used the radioisotope "°Ag as a tracer for a study of the exchange of silver between Ag(II) and Ag(I) in acidic media. The precipitation of Ag(phen)2(C104)2, brought about by the addition of o-phenanthroline, formed the basis of the separation method. The experimental data were obtained using a... 

Investigations by Zintl and Ranch, suggested that, in aqueous alkali, the oxyanions of lead (plumbate and plumbite) do not exchange at room temperature. This has been confirmed by Fava, who detected no exchange in 7 M KOH over a period of ten days at room temperature, but found measurable exchange at temperatures in the range 57 to 100 °C with reactant concentrations 2x 10 M. The barium plumbate separation method was used with the tracer Ra D. 

Keenan has made an investigation of the exchange reaction between Pu(IV) and Pu(in) in perchlorate media. The isotopic method was used with an a energy analyser to separate the tracer activity ( Pu) from that normally present from the major constituent ( Pu). Tributylphosphate extraction of the Pu(IV) formed the basis of the separation method. It was shown that the rate law has the approximate form... 

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