DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF EXTRACTIVE SCINTILLATING RESINS FOR DETERMINATION OF ULTRA-LOW-LEVEL PLUTONIUM IN AQUATIC SYSTEMS

• Published in: Health physics (1958) Vol. 115; p. S28
• Main Authors: Fullmer, WK, Seliman, A, Husson, SM, Powell, BA, DeVol, TA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Ovid Technologies 01-07-2018
• Subjects: Aquatic environment; Aqueous solutions; Copolymerization; Copolymers; Environmental monitoring; Forensic science; Formulations; Internet; Ligands; Natural waters; pH effects; Plutonium; Polymers; Polyurethane resins; Radiation; Radiation detectors; Radioisotopes; Recognition; Resins; Scintillation counters; Silica; Silicon dioxide; Water resources management
• ISSN: 0017-9078; 1538-5159

Extractive scintillating resins (ESRs) simplify quantification of radionuclides from aqueous solutions by reducing the number of steps required and by reducing waste. Two formulations of plutonium ESR are being developed and characterized: (1) by attaching scintillating polymer chains to the surface of a molecular recognition resin and (2) by covalently attaching plutonium-selective ligand to a porous plastic scintillating bead. In the first formulation, plastic scintillating polymer was attached to the surface of Pu-02 Analig, a proprietary silica-based molecular recognition resin developed by IBC Advanced Technologies, for selective aqueous Pu uptake over a broad range of pH. Batch uptake tests indicated high affinity (Kd of 1,780 ml g-1 ) for Pu-242(IV) from a pH 1 solution. This resin subsequently was loaded into a PTFE column, and detection efficiency was quantified with a liquid scintillation counter without the introduction of cocktail. Online measurement with the resin was conducted using a flow-cell radiation detector to quantify the plutonium accumulated on the resin as the sample was loading on the column. The detection efficiencies for the batch and online measurements were 36.4% and 28.5%, demonstrating the radioluminescent properties of this resin. In the second formulation, dibenzoylmethane (DBM), an organic ligand that selectively binds Pu at circumneutral pH, was both impregnated into a resin bead and transformed into a vinyl form and covalently attached within a scintillating resin by suspension copolymerization. These DBM resins were characterized using natural waters. Pu selective ESRs are nuclear forensics tools capable of monitoring water systems for unforeseen releases of plutonium.