Deuterium Isotope Effects on Acid Ionization and Transition Metal Hydrolysis at Reactor Conditions by Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

This paper reports the preliminary measurements from an experimental study to measure the small differences between light (H₂O) and heavy (D₂O) water under reactor operating conditions (250-300 °C, 10 MPa), using Raman spectroscopy. The deuterium isotope effect ΔpK = pK_D2O – pK_H2O, for sodium bisulphate NaDSO₄ and phosphoric acid D₃PO₄, has now been determined at temperatures of 25 °C and 80 °C by measuring the isotropic Raman spectra at different concentrations. The results for the pK and ΔpK at 25 °C agree with the literature, confirming the reliability of the method. High temperature cells have been constructed.