A compact solvent extraction based 99Mo/99 mTc generator for hospital radiopharmacy

Highly Efficient Micro-Scale Liquid-Liquid In-Flow Extraction of 99mTc from Molybdenum

“…The aim of this work is to test the efficiency of the solvent extraction and separation process of technetium from molybdenum in an in-flow chemistry regime with the aid of the Zaiput separator. A versatile separation system that would allow for minimization of costs, times, dimensions, and volumes involved in the process, as well as being applicable also to 99m Tc indirect production methods, such as from low specific activity reactor-produced 99 Mo, where the solvent extraction remains the best extraction-separation method [ 16 , 37 ].…”

“…Strong commitment has been devoted to the cyclotron-based direct production of 99m Tc, through the 100 Mo(p, 2n) 99m Tc nuclear reaction, as a valuable alternative [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Accurate studies on the cross section of this reaction and of collateral nuclear reactions have determined the optimal energy range (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) to maximize the production of 99m Tc, ensuring a radionuclidic purity level suitable for clinical applications [13]. This energy range is covered by most of the conventional medical cyclotrons already in operation in many hospital radiopharmacies, which can therefore be used for the production of 99m Tc on site ensuring a constant and on demand supply, without the aid of nuclear reactors.…”

“…Other reactor-based routes have been investigated based on the indirect production of 99m Tc induced by thermal or fast neutron beams, respectively through the 98 Mo(n,γ) 99 Mo and 100 Mo(n,2n) 99 Mo nuclear reactions, or gamma-ray beam 100 Mo(γ,n) 99 Mo [11,14,15]. These routes are all affected by low specific activity molybdenum, being products and targets made of the same element material, thus complicating the generator-like extraction and separation process required for the isolation of high purity 99m Tc, since it would require large columns to adsorb molybdenum, decreasing the radioactive concentration of 99m Tc obtained to unacceptably low levels [16][17][18].…”