Concentration Dependence of the Rate of Catalytic Isotopic Exchange of Hydrogen with Water Vapor on the Catalyst RKhTU-3SM

One method of separating hydrogen isotopes is chemical isotopic exchange of hydrogen with liquid water, combined with electrolysis of water. At present, different mathematical models are used to calculate the characteristics of newly developed setups. They all have the problem of inadequate data on the characteristics of the chemical isotopic exchange process occurring at medium and high deuterium concentrations. The present work is devoted to investigating one stage of chemical isotopic exchange – catalytic isotopic exchange between hydrogen and water vapor at high deuterium concentrations in application to the catalyst RKhTU-3SM. It is shown that the experimental rate constant of isotopic exchange for the pair protium – deuterium increases by almost a factor of two, while for exchange with tritium increasing the deuterium concentration from 5 to 95% does not change the experimentally observed rate constant to within the measurement error.