Search

An efficient and reproducible photopolymerized poly(glycidyl methacrylate‐co‐ethylene dimethacrylate) was synthesized in Teflon‐coated fused‐silica capillaries (100 μm id) and functionalized by reaction of triethylamine with reactive epoxy groups. We report here the successful transfer of a standard polymerization mixture optimized for the thermally initiated synthesis of glycidyl‐based monolith to photo‐induced polymerization. The monolith obtained after optimization of the photo‐initiation conditions was characterized in reverse‐phase chromatography evaluating its suitability in terms of efficiency, retention and hydrodynamic permeability. Reproducibility of the photo‐induced procedure was satisfactory with RSD below 6% for retention and efficiency and slightly higher for hydrodynamic permeability (12%). The functionalized generic support was then used in nano‐ion‐exchange chromatography. Efficiencies up to 75 000 plates/m, ion‐exchange capacity of 8 nano‐equivalents/cm of monolithic column, with a combination of a satisfactory hydrodynamic permeability allowed to perform fast separations of five inorganic anions in <3 min maintaining baseline resolution. The efficiency of the monolith was not retention‐dependent, demonstrating its wide range of possible applications for highly retained anions.

In the French long-lived radionuclide (LLRN) transmutation program, several irradiation experiments were initiated in the Phenix fast neutron reactor to obtain a better understanding of the transmutation processes. The PROFIL experiments are performed in order to collect accurate information on the total capture integral cross sections of the principal heavy isotopes and some important fission products in the spectral range of fast reactors. One of the final goals is to diminish the uncertainties on the capture cross-section of the fission products involved in reactivity losses in fast reactors. This program includes two parts: PROFIL-R irradiated in a standard fast reactor spectrum and PROFIL-M irradiated in a moderated spectrum. The PROFIL-R and PROFIL-M irradiations were completed in August 2005 and May 2008, respectively. For both irradiations more than a hundred containers with isotopes of pure actinides and other elements in different chemical forms must be characterized. This raises a technical and analytical challenge: how to recover by selective dissolution less than 5 mg of isotope powder from a container with dimensions of only a few millimeters using hot cell facilities, and how to determine analytically both trace and ultratrace elemental and isotopic compositions with sufficient accuracy to be useful for code calculations.