Synthesis and Characteristics of CuO Immobilized in Porous Alumina for the Removal of Hydrogen Generated by the Fission Mo-99 Production

Abstract

Fission Mo-99, which is one of the fission products from the irradiated U-235 target, has been mainly produced through the dissolving procedure in an alkali solution. However, this approach has problems with the explosion of the generated hydrogen gas. In this research, we designed the porous alumina ball immobilized in CuO (CuO-PAB) for the hydrogen removal. The CuO-PAB was prepared by calcining the commercial PAB absorbed Cu ion. The nano-sized CuO particles are distributed evenly in the porous network of PAB without any significant aggregation. Also, the wall of the PAB's pore channel hinders the aggregation and growth of CuO particles during the hydrogen removal process. These structural benefits show that the CuO-PAB is superior to bulk-CuO at the capacity and reaction rate of hydrogen conversion. Furthermore, these performances were durable in the recycling experiments.