Radiochemistry of germanium

68Ga‐PET: a powerful generator‐based alternative to cyclotron‐based PET radiopharmaceuticals

“…The development of the 68 Ge/ 68 Ga generator has been reviewed in several articles (1,2). The long half-life (T 1/2 ¼ 270.95 d) of the parent 68 Ge combined with the half-life of 68 Ga (T 1/2 ¼ 67.71 min), suitable for radiopharmaceutical synthesis, makes this pair almost ideal for a generator strategy.…”

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

“…Alternatively, eluting with 0.1 M nitric acid could be problematic, as a white solid was observed when the solution was evaporated. Evaporating high specific activity 68 Ge in nitric acid solution could lead to irrecoverable losses to the glassware [7]. Ga remaining: The organic extraction method produced Ga concentration in the final product from 30-50 ppm.…”

“…The separation should produce 68 Ge with greater than 80% recovery and the final product needs to be in 0.1 M HCl with a radiochemical concentration greater than 50 mCi/mL. Volume reduction of the Ge/HCl solution to meet the activity concentration requirement is not practical as Ge and Ga tetrachloride are both extremely volatile, and would result in loss of product and a contamination issue [7,8]. These requirements for the 68 Ge product make purification of Gefrom gallium metal challenging.…”

68Ga-PET Radiopharmacy: A Generator-Based Alternative to 18F-Radiopharmacy

“…The development of the 68 Ge/ 68 Ga generator has been reviewed in several articles (Lambrecht and Sajjad 1988;Mirzadeh and Lambrecht 1996). The long half-life (t 1/2 =270.8 days) of the parent 68 Ge combined with the half-life of 68 Ga (t 1/2 =68 min), suitable for radiopharmaceutical synthesis, makes this pair ideal for a generator strategy.…”