A rapid radiochemical method for antimony and arsenic : Part I. Formation of stibine and arsine by flash electrolysis

The formation of stibine and arsine affords a clean, one-step, method of separating antimony and arsenic from fission products. The development of a high-current electrolytic cell for the rapid formation of these hydrides from a hydrochloric acid electrolyte, is described. A chemical yield of 45% was achieved for both antimony and arsenic in 10 sec. The effects of pH and antimony and arsenic oxidation states were also studied. In 5 N hydrochloric acid, the chemical yield is independent of the antimony oxidation state. For arsenic however, the yield of arsine is 7 times greater for As(III) than for As(V).