Screening the Optimal Loading of a Pt-Catalyzed Zeolite for Hydrogen Isotope Exchange

The separation of tritiated sources from the exhaust stream of a nuclear fusion system remains a key area of study. While current hydrogen isotope separation technologies are effective at separating gaseous elemental hydrogen, they require additional costly and time-intensive electrolysis steps to be applied toward tritiated water. Previous work has proposed a capture and exchange method, which this work has applied to screen for an optimal weight loading of platinum onto a zeolite molecular sieve. Several samples of various weight loadings were cycled using a series of isotope exchange processes, and it was determined that a weight loading between 0.65 to 0.80 wt% Pt is optimal to separate heavier isotopes of hydrogen from a water waste stream.