Rapid Elution of 226Th from a Two-Column 230U/226Th Generator with Diluted and Buffer Solutions

Abstract

A radionuclide generator of the short-lived alpha emitter 226Th was proposed. An original scheme consisting of two in-series chromatographic columns was developed for rapidly producing a neutral citric-buffered eluate of high purity 226Th. The first column filled with TEVA resin retained the parent 230U, while 226Th was eluted with 7 M HCl solution to be immediately adsorbed on the second column containing DGA resin or UTEVA resin. Having substituted the strongly acidic medium of second column with neutral salt solution, 226Th was desorbed with diluted citric buffer solution. One cycle of generator milking took 5–7 min and produced >90% of 226Th in 1.5 mL of eluate (pH 4.5–5.0) appropriate for direct use in radiopharmaceutical synthesis. The 230U impurity in 226Th eluate was less than 0.01%. The proposed two-column 230U/226Th generator was tested over 2 months including a second loading of 230U additionally accumulated from 230Pa.