Mass selective separation applied to radioisotopes of cesium

A technique that uses the intrinsic mass-based separation capability of a quadrupole mass spectrometer has been used to resolve spectral radiometric interference of two isotopes of the same element. In this work the starting sample was a mixture of ¹³⁷ Cs and ¹³⁴ Cs and was (activity) dominated by ¹³⁷ Cs. This methodology separated and 'implanted' ¹³⁴ Cs that was later quantified for spectral features and activity with traditional radiometric techniques. This work demonstrated a ¹³⁴ Cs/¹³⁷ Cs activity ratio enhancement of >4 orders of magnitude and complete removal of ¹³⁷ Cs spectral features from the implanted target mass (i.e. 134). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.