Influence of Alumina Phases on the Molybdenum Adsorption Capacity and Chemical Stability for 99Mo/99mTc Generators Columns

Abstract

Technetium-99m is the clinically most used radionuclide worldwide. Although many techniques can be applied to separate 99 Mo and 99m Tc, the most commonly used method is the column chromatography with alumina as stationary phase. However, the alumina nowadays used has limited adsorption capacity of molybdate ions which implies the need to develop or improve materials to produce high specific activity generators. In this paper, alumina was obtained by a solid state method and heat treatments at different conditions. The powders had a microstructure with porous particles of γ, δ, θ and α-Al 2 O 3 phases as well as specific surface area between 36 and 312 m 2 g -1.Most interesting results were reached by powders calcined at 900 o C for 5 hours which had high chemical stability and a molybdenum adsorption capacity of 92.45 mg Mo per g alumina.

Biomolecule‐Assisted Synthesis of Hierarchical Multilayered Boehmite and Alumina Nanosheets for Enhanced Molybdenum Adsorption

“…Based on previousr eports, the existence of ac rystalline g-Al 2 O 3 phase is highly beneficial for enhancing the Mo adsorption capacity. [7,64] By comparing Figure 5( bottom) and Figure 8c,i tcan be deduced that the sample AlEG-Pro(1)-700 exhibits the highest degree of crystallinity among the three samples leadingt oahigh Mo adsorption performance.…”

Molybdenum-99 production pathways and the sorbents for 99Mo/99mTc generator systems using (n, γ) 99Mo: a review

“…The adsorption capacity of alumina for molybdenum is reported to be in the range of 2-26 mg/gram of alumina [60,61]. Several studies described processes to enhance adsorption capacity of alumina for molybdenum [51,62,63]. Takahashi et al [51] studied molybdenum adsorption capacity for commercially available alumina.…”

Development of Novel Alumina by Solid-State Reaction for 99Mo/99mTc Adsorbent Material

“…Alumina is an inexpensive material and possessing sufficient hardness as a column filler. The main drawback of this material is its low adsorption capacity to molybdenum (20 mg Mo/g alumina) (Guedes-Silva et al, 2016). This adsorption capacity is enough for 99 Mo/ 99m Tc generator production using a high specific activity 99 Mo, however it is inadequate for low specific activity 99 Mo.…”

“…99 Mo decays to 99m Tc and can be eluted using saline solution every day. 99m Tc is carried by the saline solution in TcO4form, while 99 Mo remains in alumina column (Guedes-Silva et al, 2016). 99 Mo for a 99 Mo/ 99m Tc generator is mainly produced from fission of uranium-235 ( 235 U), either high enriched or low enrich uranium form, which produces high specific Munir, et.al…”