New separation method of no-carrier-added 47Sc from titanium targets

Abstract

Abstract Radionuclides with medium energy beta emission and a several day half-life are attractive candidates for radioimmunotherapy. Among the most promising in this category is 47Sc produced by fast neutron irradiation (E n>1 MeV) of titanium target with high energy neutrons in 47Ti(n,p) 47Sc nuclear reaction. In the previously reported production scheme the dissolution of the TiO2 target in hot concentrated H2SO4 and evaporation of the resulting solution were the most time-consuming steps. The present paper describes new, simple and efficient production method of 47Sc, where the slow dissolution of the target is avoided. After irradiation in fast neutron flux 47TiO2 and Li2 47TiF6 targets were dissolved in HF solutions. Next 47Sc was separated from the target using anion exchange resin Dowex 1 with 0.4 M HF + 0.06 M HNO3 solution as eluent. The eluted 47Sc was adsorbed on cation exchange resin and eluted with 0.5 M of ammonium acetate. The 47Sc separation yield in the proposed procedure is about 90% with the separation time less than 2 h. The obtained no-carrier-added 47Sc was used to label DOTATATE conjugate with 96% labeling yield.