67Cu Production Capabilities: A Mini Review.

Is the 67Cu production worldwide feasible for expanding preclinical and clinical studies? How can we face the ingrowing demands of this emerging and promising theranostic radionuclide for personalized therapies? This review looks at the different production routes, including the accelerator- and reactor-based ones, providing a comprehensive overview of the actual 67Cu supply, with brief insight into its use in non-clinical and clinical studies. In addition to the most often explored nuclear reactions, this work focuses on the 67Cu separation and purification techniques, as well as the target material recovery procedures that are mandatory for the economic sustainability of the production cycle. The quality aspects, such as radiochemical, chemical, and radionuclidic purity, with particular attention to the coproduction of the counterpart 64Cu, are also taken into account, with detailed comparisons among the different production routes. Future possibilities related to new infrastructures are included in this work, as well as new developments on the radiopharmaceuticals aspects.

Improved procedures of Sc(OH)3 precipitation and UTEVA extraction for 44Sc separation.

BACKGROUND: 44Sc is becoming attractive as a PET radionuclide due to its decay characteristics. It can be produced from 44Ca present in natural calcium with 2.08% abundance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The targets were mostly prepared from natural CaCO3 or metallic calcium in the form of pellets. After irradiation they were dissolved in 3 M hydrochloric acid and 44Sc was separated from excess of calcium by precipitation of scandium hydroxide using ammonia. Alternatively, targets were dissolved in 11 M hydrochloric acid and 44Sc was separated by extraction chromatography on UTEVA resin. As the next step, in both processes 44Sc was further purified on a cation exchange resin. Initially, the separation procedures were developed with 46Sc as a tracer. Gamma spectrometry with a high purity germanium detector was used to determine the separation efficiency. Finally, the CaCO3 pellet with 99.2% enrichment in 44Ca was activated with protons via 44Ca(p,n)44Sc nuclear reaction. RESULTS: Altogether twenty two irradiations and separations were performed. The working procedures were developed and the quality of separated 44Sc solution was confirmed by radiolabeling of DOTATATE. The chemical purity of the product was sufficient for preclinical experiments. At the end of around 1 hour proton beam irradiation of CaCO3 pellet with 99.2% enrichment in 44Ca the obtained radioactivity of 44Sc was more than 4.8 GBq. CONCLUSION: 44Sc can be produced inexpensively with adequate yields and radionuclidic purity via 44Ca(p,n)44Sc nuclear reaction in small cyclotrons. The recovery yield in both investigated separation methods was comparable and amounted above 90%. The obtained 44Sc was pure in terms of radionuclide and chemical purity, as shown by the results of peptide radiolabeling.

Manufacturing and characterization of molybdenum pellets used as targets for 99mTc production in cyclotron.

The method of 100Mo metallic target preparation for production of 99mTc by proton irradiation in 100Mo(p,2n)99mTc reaction was demonstrated. For this purpose, pressing of molybdenum powder into pellets and their subsequent sintering in reductive atmosphere were applied. The influence of parameters such as molybdenum mass and time of both pressing and sintering on the 100Mo target durability was investigated. Under the optimized conditions, 100Mo metallic pellet targets with density of 9.95±0.06g/cm3 were obtained. Morphology and structure of pressed pellets before and after sintering were studied by using standard optical microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Nanoindentation technique was used to investigate the mechanical properties such as nanohardness and Young modulus. Prepared 100Mo pellets were successfully irradiated with protons and 99mTc was efficiently isolated.

Thermal diffusion of 57Co into rhodium matrix as a second step in preparing Mössbauer sources.

Thermal diffusion of (57)Co into rhodium matrix was studied. The diffusion degree was evaluated by Mössbauer spectroscopy with the use of α-Fe absorber. The influence of different annealing conditions was investigated. For a set of sources examined, smooth and rounded Lorentzian lines were observed. The main spectra parameters are fairly acceptable with respect to the typical obtainable values for α-Fe absorbers in Mössbauer spectroscopy. The results obtained confirm that the deposited (57)Co diffused almost completely into rhodium matrix without substantial loss of the activity deposited.

Electrodeposition of carrier-free 57Co on rhodium as an approach to the preparation of Mössbauer sources.

Electrodeposition of carrier-free (57)Co on a rhodium matrix as the first step of preparing Mössbauer sources was studied. To optimize the plating parameters, the influences of current density, volume and pH of the electrolyte solution, shape, thickness, and surface area of the rhodium cathode, mode of cathode pretreatment, concentration of (57)Co and duration of electrolysis were investigated.