Photochemical production of the 204Hg isotope

Technologies for photochemical separation of highly enriched mercury isotopes are being developed and an appropriate experimental setup has been designed at the National Research Centre ??Kurchatov Institute.?? The process is based on the reaction of oxidation of selectively excited mercury atoms in the presence of 1.3-butadiene. Along with the ¹⁹⁶Hg, ¹⁹⁸Hg, ¹⁹⁹Hg, ²⁰⁰Hg, and ²⁰²Hg isotopes with concentrations from 90 to 99%, the ²⁰⁴Hg isotope with a concentration of 98% has been separated for the first time.