Development of a production scale purification of Ge-68 from irradiated gallium metal

Abstract

is produced by proton irradiation of a gallium metal target and purified by organic extraction. The Ge-68 can be used in a medical isotope generator to produce Gallium-68 (Ga-68) which can be used to radiolabel PET imaging agents. The emerging use of Ge-68 in the Ga-68 medical isotope generator has caused us to develop a new purification method for Ge-68 that does not use toxic solvents. The purpose of this work was to develop a production scale separation of Ge-68 that utilizes a leaching step to remove a bulk of the gallium metal, followed by purification with Sephadex © G25. Production scale (300 mCi) purification was performed with the new method. The purified Ge-68 contained the highest radioactivity concentration of Ge-68 produced at BNL; the sample meet Department of Energy specifications and the method had an excellent recovery of Ge-68.

Production of novel diagnostic radionuclides in small medical cyclotrons

“…This requires a robust and complex solid target design that can handle a high heat transfer for prolonged periods, as well as reliable purification of the material once the irradiation is complete. The rising need for 68 Ga radionuclide fuels developments in this area (Fitzsimmons and Mausner, 2015a ; Fitzsimmons and Mausner, 2015b ; Sounalet et al, 2014 ; Bach et al, 2013 ).…”

Evaluation of Materials for the Separation of Germanium from Gallium, Zinc and Cobalt

“…At values above pH 10 Ga speciation diagrams indicate Ga is present in the form of Ga(OH) 4 -and insoluble Ga(OH) 3 which was the cause of the insoluble Ga [11]. Ge speciation diagrams indicate Ge is present in the form of the soluble species GeO(OH) 3 -and GeO2(OH) 2 2- [9]. As a consequence of insoluble metal hydroxides at pH values between 10 and 13, high concentration of hydroxide was needed to form complexes of soluble metal hydroxides and the separations were performed at pH 14.…”

Specific activity and isotope abundances of strontium in purified strontium-82

“…The ICP-OES assay analysed for 19 elements, which corresponds to different isotope products and potential environmental contaminates. This universal ICP-OES analysis method is also used for analysis of Be-7, Cu-67, 12 Zn-65, 13,14 Ge-68, 15 Ni-63 and Y-86 (ref. 16) produced by the isotope production group at BNL.…”