Extractive Behavior of Magnesium Chloride and Isotopic Enrichment of Magnesium by a Crown Ether

Magnesium chloride was extracted into an organic phase including dicyclohex-ano-18-crown-6 (DC18C6). The partition coefficient showed its highest value for a liquid-liquid extraction system of 3.5 M MgCl 2 aqueous phase. Magnesium isotopes 24 Mg, 25 Mg, and 26 Mg were enriched in the system with their respective enrichment factors. The enrichment factor for 24 Mg/ 26 Mg was e = 0.0112 as a maximum value. The enrichment factors for a unit difference of mass numbers varied depending on the MgCl 2 concentrations in the aqueous phase. The isotope-recognizing ability of DC18C6 was K c - 1.0016, which is smaller than the separation factor due to an exchange of the aqua/dichloro complex of Mg 2+ , K p - 1.0040. An odd/even isotope effect was observed, and it was assigned to nuclear properties other than mass difference. Odd/even staggering associated with the optical transition of electrons offers a consistent explanation to the different behaviors of isotopes with odd or even mass numbers.