PNNL

Abstract

Abstract Elemental analysis of rare earths is essential in a variety of fields including environmental monitoring and nuclear safeguards; however, current techniques are often labor intensive, time consuming and/or costly to perform. The difficulty arises in preparing samples, which requires separating the very chemically and physically similar lanthanides. However, by transitioning these separations to the microscale, the speed, cost, and simplicity of sample preparation can be drastically reduced. Here, all fourteen non radioactive lanthanides (lanthanum through lutetium minus promethium) are separated by ITP in a serpentine fused silica microchannel in