Preparation of a 60Fe target for nuclear astrophysics experiments

An 60Fe target for studying the 60Fe(n, γ)61Fe cross-section at stellar energies was prepared using radio-chemical separation techniques. In total, 7.8×101560Fe atoms (777 ng) were separated from a copper beam dump for the 590 MeV proton beam of the high intensity accelerator at PSI. The final target was prepared by evaporating the iron-containing aqueous solution onto a graphite backing. With this sample the keV neutron capture cross-section of 60Fe has been measured at FZ Karlsruhe.The work is part of the ERAWAST-initiative (Exotic Radionuclides from Accelerator WAste for Science and Technology) which is aimed at extracting rare valuable radionuclides from accelerator waste by chemical means.