ABSTRACT
Radioisotopes have been used for many years to study the various processes involved in detergency. This chapter serves the twofold purpose of a practical introduction to the principles, techniques, and pitfalls and to the safety and regulatory requirements involved with the use of radioisotopes; and an introduction to the utility of radioisotope techniques in detergency-related research. Approximately 1200 radioisotopes have been identified and characterized. Most of these are of interest only to nuclear chemists and physicists because of the exotic means required for production or separation of the isotope or to an extremely short half-life. The experimenter without ready access to a nuclear reactor or an accelerator is further limited to those radioisotopes available from a commercial supplier. For the experimenter without institutional access to radiochemical expertise, short, intensive training courses in the use of radioisotopes are available at some universities. Radioisotopes in cationic form in amounts small enough to be completely adsorbed on clay were added to kaolinite-water slurries.
