High specific activity 6¹Cu via 64Zn(p,α)6¹Cu reaction at low proton energies.

The PET radionuclide (61)Cu is accessible through several nuclear reactions. Besides the common production route via (61)Ni(p,n)(61)Cu the (64)Zn(p,α)(61)Cu reaction offers some advantages. Especially the comparatively cheap enriched (64)Zn makes this process economical. For fast product purification and recycling of target material an ion exchange cascade was developed. In addition a separation technique with a copper selective resin was tested. (61)Cu with specific activities up to 1000 GBq/µmol was produced with these methods.