Preparation of Ga/Ni solid target for cyclotron-produced ⁶⁸Ge by electrodeposition

Germanium 68 is mainly used for preparation of the ⁶⁸Ge-⁶⁸Ga generator and the calibration of positron emission computed tomography. The low melting point of the target material in the production reaction ⁶⁹Ga (p, 2n) ⁶⁸Ge has limited the availability of Ge-68. In order to use the existing industrial cyclotron hardware to produce Germanium 68, the method of electrodepositing gallium-nickel alloy was set up in this study. Acidic requirements were met through the preparation of the gallium-nickel alloy targets and by optimizing the plating bath composition and electrodepositing conditions, finally confirmed by adjustment of the electro-deposition process, and preparation of the gallium-nickel alloy targets with a gallium content of 75 %. After three time irradiation tests, the process was certified to produce targets of Germanium 68. This process is user-friendly, the preparation of the targets is of stable quality, and it can be applied to the cyclotron production of Germanium 68. (authors)