Development of a new continuous dissolution apparatus with a hydrophobic membrane for superheavy element chemistry

A new technique for continuous dissolution of nuclear reaction products transported by a gas-jet system was developed for superheavy element (SHE) chemistry. In this technique, a hydrophobic membrane is utilized to separate an aqueous phase from the gas phase. With this technique, the dissolution efficiencies of short-lived radionuclides of 91m,93mMo and 176W were measured. Yields of more than 80 % were observed for short-lived radionuclides at aqueous-phase flow rates of 0.1–0.4 mL/s. The gas flow-rate had no influence on the dissolution efficiency within the studied flow range of 1.0–2.0 L/min. These results show that this technique is applicable for on-line chemical studies of SHEs in the liquid phase.