Radon capture with silver exchanged zeolites
Journal article, 2012
To enable laboratory work with larger amounts of Ra-226 and its decay products, e.g., Rn-222 and its daughters, these need to be captured in order to avoid unnecessary alpha contamination of the laboratory work space and ventilation systems. In this study, radon gas was pumped through a column filled with the silver exchanged zeolite called "silver exchanged molecular sieves 13X" (Ag84Na2[(AlO2)(86)(SiO2)(106)]. xH(2)O). After exposure to radon, the radioactivity of the zeolite was measured repeatedly using high resolution gamma spectrometry. It was shown that radon was captured and retained in the silver exchanged zeolite. The zeolites' ability to retain radon was decreased by formation of metallic silver, caused by ionizing radiation. However, the zeolite was regenerated by heating and its radon capture ability was restored. The daughters of radon are not in gas phase and will hence stay on the column.
Zeolite
clusters
adsorption
Adsorption
zeolites
xenon
v1
1981
argon
llens lr
p11
Radon
oxygen
nitrogen
ets-10
Author
Hanna Hedström
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Nuclear Chemistry
Mark Foreman
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Nuclear Chemistry
Christian Ekberg
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Nuclear Chemistry
Henrik Ramebäck
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Nuclear Chemistry
Radiochimica Acta
0033-8230 (ISSN)
Vol. 100 6 395-399DOI
10.1524/ract.2012.1932