Utility of Reversed Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography for On-Line Yield Determination of Radiochemical Separations: Studies with Cobalt

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Abstract
This article indicates the potentials of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a radiochemical technique for mulitielement separation of neutron irradiated samples. The focus lies on the convenience to use the detector signal of the eluted components to indicate the chemical yield (percentage recovery) of the analyte, which has often proved to be a crucial step in radiochemical separations. Two signals have been utilised. The UV signal of the metal-ligand complexes separated by reversed phase HPLC and the radioactive response as a result of sample irradiation or carrier-tracer addition. Change in ratio is discussed between the two signals, if any, for a specific sample. Losses of metal as much as 65% were simulated and corrected using the individual UV response. The method promises improved accuracy for elemental analysis despite losses suffered during the various chemical steps. The procedure omits the necessity of additional analytical steps for yield determination. The present article aims at the chromatographic part of the study. Cobalt as cobalt diethyldithiocarbamate has been used to demonstrate the viability of the concept. The separation was developed on a C18 reverse phase analytical column and optimised on a semi preparative one.