Spectrophotometric study of the behaviour of pertechnetate in trifluoromethanesulfonic acid: Effect of alpha irradiation on the stability of Tc(VII)

Ibtihel Denden, Rachid Essehli, Massoud Fattahi

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5 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the stability of pertechnetate in trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (HTFMS) in presence or absence of alpha irradiation. The irradiations were performed using alpha particles (4He 2+) generated by ARRONAX cyclotron with an external beam energy of 70 MeV. The stability has been determined by UV-Visible spectroscopy. In the absence of alpha irradiation, the results have shown that Tc(VII) is reduced in HTFMS between 4 and 11 M. UV-Visible spectroscopy measurements in 4-8 M show the presence of one phase of Tc(IV) oxopolymeric species. At 9 M HTFMS, the change of UV-Visible spectrum with respect to lower concentrations suggests the formation of a second new species of Tc(IV). At highly concentrated HTFMS (11 M), the Tc(VII) species remains stable. These findings exhibit the formation of reduced Tc species by partial thermal decomposition and hydrolysis processes due to the highly exothermic hydration reaction of triflic acid with water. Under alpha irradiation, the same reduced Tc species as those observed without external irradiation were obtained with higher reduction kinetics. The formation of oxopolymeric technetium at important radiolytic yield resulted from reducing radiolytic products of both water and acid.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)149-155
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Volume296
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alpha-radiolysis
  • Technetium
  • Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid
  • UV-Visible spectroscopy

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