Preparation of Three Lanthanide Element Targets by Electrodeposition

Key words: 
• molecular plating /
• lanthanide element target /
• deposition yield

Abstract: Preparation of Tb, Dy and Ho targets from the mixture of isopropanol and nitricacid solution are studied by using molecular plating technique. To determine the optimum conditions for the deposition process,the effect of distance between the two electrodes, current density, volume of 0.1 mol/L nitric acid, deposition time on the quality and electrodeposition yield of the target films are investigated individually. Preparation of Tb targets from the mixture of isobutylalcohol and nitricacid solution are also studied by using molecular plating technique. Depending on the similar chemical properties of Tb, Dy and Ho, the same process conditions are used.The suitable distance between the two electrodes is 15 mm. The current density is 5.7 mA/ cm2. The volume of nitric acid (0.1 mol/L) is 400 L. With the spectrophotometry method, the electrodeposition yields for all the targets prepared are found to be higher than 85% after one hour’s deposition. The morphological structure of some targets are characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and it can be seen that the surface of the targets are uniform and intact. With EDS method, the composition of some targets are found to be very pure. The chemical structure of the targets are analyzed by Infrared Spectroscopy. It is found that the chemical structure of the targets are complex and the target membrane is not composed by only one compound. Short lived isotopes of W and Os were produced from natural Tb and Ho targets bombarded by 19F beam at the SFC low energy radiochemical terminal of Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, respectively,and were successfully applied in the model experiment of Sg (Z =106) and Hs (Z =108).