Nuclear aspects and cyclotron production of the positron emitter ⁵⁵Co

Abstract

The radionuclide 55Co (T1/2 = 17.5 h, Eβ+ = 1.5 MeV, 76% β+ decay) is an important β+ emitting radioisotope. For production of 55Co via natFe(p, xn) 55Co reaction, an iron layer was deposited on a copper substrate by means of electro-deposition method which could be irradiated by 29.5 MeV protons at 100 μA. No-carrier-added (n.c.a.) 55Co was separated from the iron target via an anion exchange column (Dowex 1 · 8). The achieved production yield was 31.25 MBq/μAh. Also, excitation functions for the 55Co radionuclide via natFe(p, xn)55Co, 56Fe(p, 2n)55Co and 54Fe(d, n)55Co reactions were calculated by TALYS-1.4 code and TENDL-2011 database and compared with previous published data.