Determination of deuterium in heavy water by secondary deuteron activation.
The deuterium concentration of heavy water was determined by utilizing recoiling deuterium nuclei from n-d collisions to induce the reaction (16)O(d, n)(17)F. The internal ratio of 66-sec fluorine-17 to 7.35-sec nitrogen-16 activity, formed by the reaction (16)O(n, p), (16)N, was found to vary linearly with deuterium concentration. When such an internal ratio of activities is measured, the neutron flux and sample weight need not be known. Deuterium was determined over the range from 2.6 to 94.5 atom %, with a relative standard deviation of 2.8%. The effect of sample size was investigated and it was found that the relative amount of fluorine-17 activity formed became less as sample size decreased, due to the loss of recoiling deuterons from the sample. A simple relationship to account for this effect was obtained.
Pretorius
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Activation Analysis Research Laboratory, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas, U.S.A.
Wainerdi
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