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US 6,190,531 B1Granted
Concentration and removal of tritium and/or deuterium from water contaminated with tritium and/or deuterium
AssigneeUniversity of North Carolina
InventorsThomas J. Meyer, Poonam M. Narula
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Concentration of tritium and/or deuterium that is a contaminant in H2O, followed by separation of the concentrate from the H2O. Employed are certain metal oxo complexes, preferably with a metal from Group VIII. For instance, [RuIV(2,2′,6′,2″-terpyridine)(2,2′-bipyridine)(O)](ClO4)2 is very suitable.
Claims12
A method for separation of hydrogen isotope contamination from water comprising:
- (a) providing an aqueous solution containing hydrogen isotope contamination;
- (b) providing an organic substrate and converting
- (i) the isotope contamination into the organic substrate in isotope form and
- (ii) a portion of the water into the organic substrate in protio form;
- (c) performing electrolysis in the presence of a metal oxo complex on the aqueous solution resultant from (b) in order to oxidize the protio form of the organic substrate into its oxidized form and hydrogen gas and to concentrate the isotope form of the organic substrate;
- and
- (d) extracting the isotope form of the organic substrate from the aqueous solution resultant from (c).
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.