Niobium sputtered Havar foils for the high-power production of reactive [18F]fluoride by proton irradiation of [18O]H2O targets.

ABSTRACT

Niobium sputtered Havar entrance foils were used for the production of reactive [(18)F]fluoride by proton irradiation of [(18)O]H(2)O targets under pressurized conditions. The synthesis yield in the routine production of 2-[(18)F]fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose (FDG) was used as an indicative parameter of the reactivity of (18)F. The yield of FDG obtained with (18)F produced in a target with Havar foil was used as a baseline. No statistically significant difference was found in the saturated yields of (18)F when using Havar or Havar-Nb sputtered entrance foils. However, the amount of long-lived radionuclidic impurities decreased more than 10-fold using the Havar-Nb entrance foil. The average decay corrected synthesis yield of FDG, evaluated over a period of more than 2 years, was found to be approximately 5% higher when using a Havar-Nb entrance foil and a marked improvement on the FDG yield consistency was noted. In addition, the frequency of target rebuilding was greatly diminished when using the Nb sputtered entrance foil.