Separation of Xenon Isotopes in the Thermal Diffusion Column

Thermal diffusion column coefficients were measured for the separation of the isotopes of natural xenon, a mixture of nine stable species, in a 7.32-m hot wire column at wire temperatures of 790 and 1073°K. For the two remixing coefficients good agreement was found between experiment and the theory of the thermal diffusion column. Measured values of the initial transport coefficient, however, were in poor agreement with theory when the theoretical calculations were based on measurements of the thermal diffusion factor of xenon taken from the literature. The agreement was considerably improved by the use in the theory of isotopic thermal diffusion factors evaluated from a corresponding states correlation of data for other noble gases. On this basis the average ratio of the experimental initial transport coefficient to the corresponding theoretical value was found to be 1.10 ± 0.07.