Method of separating isotopes in which a compounding of selectivity is achieved by limiting the timing of the collection step

摘要

Methods for separating isotopes are disclosed including providing molecules which contain the element whose isotopes are to be separated and which have an isotopically shifted but overlapping infrared absorption spectrum associated with those isotopes which does not change appreciably upon the absorption of photons, irradiating those molecules at an infrared absorption frequency to isotopically selectively dissociate those molecules and provide molecular fragments which appear over a period of time, and collecting only those molecular fragments which dissociate within a predetermined portion of that time interval. In preferred methods, the isotopes of uranium are separated employing molecules having the general formula UO2(A1 A2)xL.