Frank Harold Spedding was a Canadian chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 who led a group of chemists at Ames Laboratory

Ames Laboratory

Ames Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Ames, Iowa. The Laboratory conducts research into various areas of national concern, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup...

 which developed an efficient process for obtaining high purity uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

 from uranium halides. The general technique is known as the Thermite process

Thermite

Thermite is a pyrotechnic composition of a metal powder and a metal oxide that produces an exothermic oxidation-reduction reaction known as a thermite reaction. If aluminium is the reducing agent it is called an aluminothermic reaction...

, or more specifically, the Ames process

Ames process

The Ames process is a process by which pure uranium metal is obtained. It can be achieved by mixing any of the uranium halides with magnesium metal powder or aluminium metal powder.- History :...

. This process was developed in 1942 and was used to produce two tons of pure uranium in support of the Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

.

Prior to his work on uranium, he developed an ion exchange

Ion exchange

Ion exchange is an exchange of ions between two electrolytes or between an electrolyte solution and a complex. In most cases the term is used to denote the processes of purification, separation, and decontamination of aqueous and other ion-containing solutions with solid polymeric or mineralic 'ion...

 method of separating and purifying rare earth element

Rare earth element

As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium...

s using ion exchange resin

Ion exchange resin

An ion-exchange resin or ion-exchange polymer is an insoluble matrix normally in the form of small beads, usually white or yellowish, fabricated from an organic polymer substrate. The material has highly developed structure of pores on the surface of which are sites with easily trapped and...

s. After World War II, Spedding used of ion exchange to separate isotope

Isotope

Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...

s of individual elements, including hundreds of grams of almost pure nitrogen-15.

He was awarded the Francis J. Clamer Medal in 1969.

External links

• Frank Spedding
• Frank Harold Spedding, Answers.com
• Story of the Atom Bomb
• History of Ames Laboratory
• US Patent no. 2830894 — Spedding patent on uranium production