On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 2:52 PM, Peter Heckert <[email protected]> wrote: > The ion diffusion speed in an electrolyte is only some centimeters > per minute at best, while the speed in a Calutron is probably some > 100 to some 1000 kilometres per second. > > Therefore the mass inertia of the nucleus at this low speed has no > effect. The electrolyte vessel must be some 1000 km long for this > to work.
Yes, but can't the liquid be accelerated to a sufficient velocity using pumps? A quick search reveals that the radius of the circular path described by a charged particle subject to a transverse magnetic field is R = mv/qB where m is the mass, v is the velocity, q is the charge and B is the field in tesla. Assume we want to separate two isotopes of masses m1 and m2, we'll want R1 - R2 > d for some sufficiently large d. Take d = 1cm, m1 = 58 amu and m2 = 64 amu, and q = 2 x 1.6e-19 C (for Ni 2+), then we need v >= qB/(m1 - m2) = 32e6 m/s/T. For a 100 nano tesla field, this gives 3.2 m/s and R1 = 9.6 m and R2 = 10.6 m. I suppose 3.2 m/s is a reasonable velocity. If we pump the solution so that the Ni2+ ions reach a velocity of 3.2 m/s while keeping the magnetic field around 100 nanotesla, we might be able to separate them. By properly orienting the setup with respect to the Earth's magnetic field, some mu-metal shielding or using some active cancellation technique, it might be possible to obtain a 100 nT field. The problem might be that you will also have whatever cations are present swirling in the opposite direction. I don't know how that would affect the Ni2+ ions. Any physicists / electrochemists in the room? -- Berke Durak
