Jixin Qiao in the laboratory

Hello! My name is Jixin Qiao and I’m working as a post-doc at the Danish Technical University, department for nuclear technologies. I did my PhD here and directly continued with my current position. Mainly I work in our chemistry labs were we are specialised in analysing extremely low levels of radioactive isotopes. We analyse both natural occurring as well as artificial ones. My main interest is in the analysis of the actinides plutonium and neptunium, they are both entirely man made and were first introduced to the environment following the nuclear era, starting in 1945. Since we know very well their releases, isotopic composition and amount to the marine environment we can use them as tracers for water movement or as markers in sediment to calculate sedimentation rates.

What was my PhD project? Simply, during my PhD study, I needed to build up a machine which could implement my chemistry knowledge. Why I need the machine? Because in the old chemistry work, we normally do the analysis by hand, so it is very hard. I admit our hands are talented and they are very flexible and can do whatever we want at any time. But sometimes, we really need a machine. For example, we want to pass some liquids (which could contain plutonium and neptunium and other impurities) through a cylinder column which is packed with a certain powder (that powder is normally called ion exchange resin which could adsorb plutonium and neptunium and thus purify them – provided the liquid solution has the right composition). Unfortunately, if we let the liquid flow through the column by gravity, it may take several days. And therefore, in these cases, we need a machine to provide power to push the liquid go though at faster speed. So certainly, a pump is a central part of my machine to offer the power.

Manual ion exchange separation of plutonium and one of my constructions of a programmable machine that does the work by itself.