Abstract
Silica gels and porous glasses thermally treated at various temperatures were examined for use as an adsorbent to separate tritiated water (HTO) with an adsorption method. The HTO was adsorbed much stronger than H2O. A high partition coefficient of 1.38 was observed for the thermally treated silica gel at 1100°C in vacuo. From the measurement of IR spectra, isolated silanol groups were formed on the thermally treated silica gel surface. We can conclude that there is a large mass effect for the concentration of tritiated water on the thermally treated silica gels because hydroxyl groups or water molecules adsorbed on them are difficult to form hydrogen bonds with each other.
