Cubic Antimonic Acid as Column-Packing Material for Chromatographic Lithium Isotope Separation

The applicability of granular cubic antimonic acid (C-SbA) as column packing material in chromatographic lithium isotope separation was investigated. The feed solution should have the buffer capacity to promote lithium uptake, and its pH has to be kept as low as 2.25 to prevent the decomposition of the granular C-SbA in order to obtain a sharp front boundary of the lithium sorption zone. The pH and the chemical composition of the eluent should be finely controlled to obtain a displacement-type chromatogram. The lithium isotope separation effect was about ten times larger than that achieved on an organic ion exchanger.