Validating Vacuum Chromatography with Subsecond Radioisotopes of Hg for Superheavy Element Chemistry
Isothermal vacuum adsorption chromatography (IVAC) in the molecular-flow regime offers the speed and chemical selectivity needed to study superheavy elements beyond flerovium (Fl, Z = 114). In this study, the GLACIER buffer gas cell and RF quadrupole combination was coupled with IVAC behind the gas-filled separator AGGIE for benchmark experiments with short-lived mercury radioisotopes 179Hg (t1/2 = 1.05(3) s) and 178Hg (t1/2 = 0.2665(24) s). GLACIER provided stable transport conditions over multiple days thereby enabling a clean chromatographic separation of Hg from less-volatile nuclear reaction byproducts on fused silica. These experiments validated the employed microscopic-kinetic transport model at zero surface coverage implemented in the form of a Monte Carlo simulation. The presented findings render this approach applicable to superheavy elements such as moscovium (Mc, Z = 115).
Authors
- Yuta Ito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8431-3423)
- E. E. Tereshatov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9564-7613)
- Alexander Vögele
- Dominik Herrmann
- R. Dressler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3314-7028)
- M. Hofstetter
- Georg Tiebel
- Jenna R. Garcia
- Vira Zakusilova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2700-2191)
- Paul Dutheil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6310-9412)
- P. Steinegger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5054-0924)
- Robert M. Eichler
- Isaac W. Haynes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5271-6965)
- Jordan A. Mildon
- Charles M. Folden III
- Titeana L. M. Cook
- Tetsuya K. Sato
- Anna M. Bukowski
- Amelia S. Kirkland
Institutions
- Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JP)
- University of Bern (CH)
- High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (JP)
- American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (US)
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Spiez Laboratory (CH)
- Mitchell Institute (US)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (DE)
- Radiation Safety Engineering (United States) (US)
- Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (GR)
- Cyclotron (Netherlands) (NL)
- Federal Office for Radiation Protection (DE)
- Advanced Science Research Center (JP)
- Ibaraki University (JP)
- Graduate School USA (US)
- Texas A&M University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
- Published
- 2026-02-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5c06930
- Primary Topic
- Analytical Chemistry and Chromatography
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00