Patent ID: 7309377

Claim:
Method for separation of isotopes, where a specific isotope of a isotope composition is purified by exploiting the difference in the isotope's mass diffusivity by making the natural isotope composition, in one cycle, travel in a mass stream through a media by diffusion and optionally also convection, and thus obtain a fractioning of the isotopes such that the wanted isotope is enriched in one fraction of the mass stream, collecting this enriched fraction of the mass stream and send it through another cycle to obtain a fraction with higher content of the wanted isotope, and repeat these cycles until the wanted isotope has become sufficiently enriched, wherein hydrogen is used as ligand on an element that is to be separated, and that hydrogen and the element that is to be separated are employed in the form of a chemical compound that is in a gaseous state at the actual pressure and temperatures, the chemical compound in a gaseous state is separated by mass diffusion through a chromatographic column, and wherein the gaseous chemical compound is silane, SiH 4 in the case of isotopically separating 28 Si from 29 Si and 30 Si, or the gaseous chemical compound is one of B 2 H 6 ,NH 3 , CH 4 , H 2 O, H 2 S, HCl, Ga 2 H 6 , H 2 Se, HBr, H 2 Sb, and H 2 Te for obtaining an isotopically pure fraction of B, C, O, S, Cl, Ga, Ge, Se, Br, Sb, and Te, respectively.