INVESTIGATION OF PURIFICATION PROCESS EFFICIENCY OF ANTIMONY FROM ARSENIC BY MEANS OF RADIOTRACER METHOD

L. Waliś, L. Rowińska, E. Pańczyk

Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, 03-195 Warsaw, ul. Dorodna 16, Poland


A complex of techniques for purification of antimony from arsenic has been examined with the aid of radiotracer 76As. The investigated processes comprised vacuum distillation, zone melting and remelting of the metal under artificial slags. The purification efficiencies for the above processes were high and amounted to 94% (for 30% of the charge), 50% (for 50% of the charge) and 99.5% (for 60% of the charge), respectively. The application of the radioactive tracer made it possible to determine rapidly the distribution of impurities after each stage of the process within a wide concentration range (10-2 – 10-7 g/g).