Development of method to chemical separation of gallium-67 by thermal diffusion technique

Radioisotopes of gallium have been studied and evaluated for medical applications since 1949. Over the past 50 years 67Ga has been widely used in the diagnosis of various diseases, including acute and chronic inflammatory lesions, bacterial or sterile and several types of tumors. In Brazil 30% of clinics that provide services for Nuclear Medicine use 67Ga citrate and the demand for 67Ga at IPEN-CNEN/SP is 37 GBq (1 Ci)/week. The 67Ga presents physical half-life of 3.26 days (78 hours) and decays 100% by electron capture to stable 67Zn. Its decay includes the emission of γ rays with energies of 93.3 keV (37%), 184.6 keV (20.4%), 300.2 keV (16.6%) and 888 keV (26%). In the past 67Ga was produced by the reaction 68Zn (p, 2n) 67Ga at IPEN-CNEN/SP. After irradiation, the target was dissolved in concentrated HCl and the solution percolated through a cationic resin DOWEX 50W-X8, 200-400 mesh, conditioned with 10 mol L-1 HCl. Zinc, nickel and copper were eluted in 10 mol L-1 HCl and 67Ga 3.5 mol L-1 HCl. The final product was obtained as 67Ga citrate. This work presents a new, fast, direct and efficient method for the chemical separation of 67Ga by thermal diffusion (heating of the target) combined with concentrated acetic acid extraction. Purification was performed by ion exchange chromatography. Natural zinc electrodeposition was performed on nickel/copper plates as substrate and the zinc deposits were adherent to the substrate, slightly shiny and uniform. The targets were irradiated with 26 MeV protons and integrated current of 10 μA.h. After irradiation, the targets were heated at 300 deg C for 2 hours and placed in contact with concentrated acetic acid for 1 hour. The average yield of extraction of 67Ga was (72 ± 10)%. This solution was evaporated and the residue was taken up in 0.5 mol L-1 NH4OH. The 67Ga was purified on cationic resin Dowex 50WX8 in NH4OH medium. The 67Ga recovery was (98 ± 2)%. This solution was evaporated and taken up in 0.1 mol L-1 HCl. The chemical purity was evaluated by ICP-OES that resulted in (2 ± 1) μg mL-1 of zinc. The concentration of iron, copper and nickel was lower than the detection limits and also than the utilization limits for 67Ga. The radionuclidic purity was greater than (99.9%). This method showed to be suitable to obtain high purity 67Ga in less aggressive chemical conditions than before. (author)