# Pacifichem 2025 - American Chemical Society in partnership with other international Chemical Societies
### December 14-21, 2025 in Honolulu, Hawaii
The conference website is/was [located here](https://pacifichem.org/).
I presented a presentation titled "High Performance Automated Extraction Chromatography Analysis System For Isotope production".
## Title: High Performance Automated Extraction Chromatography Analysis System For Isotope production
## Authors: Christopher Greulich, Anees Al-Najjar, Nageswara Rao, Luke Sadergaski, Miting Du, Punam Thakur
## Abstract:
A multidisciplinary team at Oak Ridge national laboratory (ORNL) is developing a system that autonomously studies the performance of elemental chemical separations via extraction chromatography. In addition to reducing human interactions with radioactive materials, the system enhances overall lab safety by reducing radiation exposure risk. The project is currently supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program's Interconnected Science Ecosystem Initiative. This initiative aims to promote scientific discovery by developing interconnected scientific instruments as well as autonomous workflow systems. The system uses syringe pumps and a fraction collector to create known mixtures of elements that are then loaded into a separations column. The performance of the separations under the preprogramed conditions are characterized rapidly and online using both optical spectroscopy and electrochemical measurements. Initial system experiments will focus on transition metals and lanthanides, validating the measured distribution coefficient, K_d, against values data mined from the published literature and manufacturer (Eichrom and Triskem International) provided data. The system then will move on to expanding the database of K_d values both experimentally and computationally, especially for radionuclides that are hard to acquire. This autonomous data collection is achieved primary through wrapping each equipment’s api with pyro which is a python library that exposes objects over a local network. This approach allows for the easy design and execution of experiments via a Jupyter notebook or python script by the research from any computer on the local network.
Along with a brief discussion of the future challenges include hot testing of the automated system, fitting the system into a glovebox that is only about 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and designing the system to be easy for workers to manipulate, maintain, and repair.
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
