THE SEPARATION OF THE OXYGEN ISOTOPES BY THE DISTILLATION OF WATER

1 July 1944

journal article
Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Canadian Journal of Research

Vol. 22b (4) , 127-136
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjr44b-016

Abstract

Three 25 ft. columns packed with "Haydite" aggregate, a cheap efficient packing material, have been operated in cascade for 120 days to concentrate the oxygen isotopes by the distillation of water. In this time 23 gm. of O¹⁸ in excess of normal were produced. This includes 150 ml. of water enriched 6.5-fold in O¹⁸ and 2.7-fold in O¹⁷. The results indicate that these columns can be expanded to several feet in diameter for large scale production of O¹⁸ without much loss in efficiency. Cohen's theory for the operation of packed fractionating columns explains satisfactorily the effect of rate of flow on the equilibrium fractionation and gives a production rate in agreement with our data. The vapour pressure of H₂O¹⁷ has been calculated and found to be equal, within the limits of our experiments, to the algebraic or geometric mean of the vapour pressures of H₂O¹⁶ and H₂O¹⁸.

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