CO2 tea laser-induced photochemical enrichment of boron isotopes

Mixtures of BCl₃ and H₂S are irradiated with 10.55 μm radiation (P(16) line of the 001–100 band of CO₂) from a TEA laser. After several hours of irradiation it is found that the maximum ¹⁰B to ¹¹B ratio of recovered gaseous boron containing material (primarily unreacted BCl₃) is 0.413 ± 0.004. The corresponding ratio of the BCl₃ starting material is 0.242 ± 0.002. The ¹⁰B concentration has therefore been increased from 19.5% to 29.2%. Further, by irradiating similar mixtures with 10.18 μm radiation (R(30) line of the same CO₂ vibrational band) this ratio changes to 0.169 ± 0.002, the ¹⁰B concentration being lowered to 14.4%. All experiments are performed in a small static system and chemical procedures for recovering milligram quantities of BCl₃ selectively enriched in either isotope are described.