Retention profile and selective separation of 90Y from 89Sr using zirconium-vanadate gel packed column

A low cost and selective method has been developed for the separation of trace concentrations of 90Y3+ from its parent 89Sr2+. The proposed procedure is based upon complete retention of 90Y3+ onto zirconium-vanadate (Zr-V) gel ion exchanger packed column from aqueous solutions containing HCl (1.0 × 10−5mol dm−3). Under these conditions, 89Sr2+ species were not retained onto Zr-V sorbent. The retained 90Y3+ species were then recovered with HCl. The performance of Zr-V sorbent packed column was determined via the height equivalent to the theoretical plates (HETP) and the number of plates (N). Validation of the developed method was checked by calculating the radionuclidic purity in terms of purification factor (P f = A/A0) and radiochemical purity of the eluted 90Y from the column. Zr-V sorbent packed column offers unique advantages of retention and quantitative separation of 90Y from retention over conventional solid sorbents in rapid and effective separation of trace concentration of 90Y3+ from 89Sr2+ in their aqueous equilibrium media.