A microfluidic route for synthesis of scandium oxide microspheres, their characterization and neutron activation

Radioactive scandium-46 microspheres have applications in mapping flow in a chemical reactor through a technique known as radioactive particle tracking (RPT). In the present study a novel microfluidic method has been developed for synthesis of controlled size scandium oxide microspheres. An inline/in-situ mixing of the scandium precursor and gelling agents was implemented which makes the microfluidic platform amenable for truly continuous operation. Microspheres of size varying from 937 to 666 mu m were produced by varying O/A ratio from 10 to 30. Perfectly spherical and monodispersed (PDI <10 %) microspheres were obtained at O/A 15 and beyond. The morphology, elemental composition, and structure of the microspheres were analysed by SEM, EDS and XRD, respectively. Subsequently the microspheres were irradiated with thermal neutrons in a nuclear reactor to obtain radioactive Sc-46 oxide microspheres. The activity produced on each Sc-46 microspheres with different sizes was in the range 19.5-34.0 MBq.