Browsing by Subject "radionuclide production"

Scandium-44 is a medically interesting positron and gamma emitting radionuclide with possible applications in molecular imaging. It is commonly produced with the use of a cyclotron in a calcium or sometimes a titanium based irradiation target. As the radiopharmaceutical use of scandium radionuclides commonly requires chelation, scandium needs to be separated from the target matrix. This is most often carried out either via extraction chromatography using a suitable solid phase or through precipitation-filtration. In this work, scandium-44 along with other scandium radionuclides was produced using cyclotron irradiation with 10 MeV protons and a solid, natural isotopic abundance calcium carbonate or calcium metal target. Scandium was separated from the irradiated targets using four different chromatographic materials and a precipitation method. Scandium-44 was produced in kilo- and megabecquerel amounts with an average saturation yield of 47 MBq/μA. The achieved separation yields in a single elution ranged from 28 ± 11 % to 70 ± 20 % with the best performing extraction material being UTEVA resin.