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Preparation of 99Mo from the 100Mo(γ, n) reaction and chemical separation of 99mTc

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Abstract

The radionuclide 99Mo has been prepared by 100Mo(γ, n) reaction using two types of natural molybdenum compound (molybdenum trioxide and zirconium molybdate gel) with the bremsstrahlung end-point energies of 10 and 15 MeV. After the equilibrium, 99mTc was separated as NaTcO4 from the irradiated samples using two different chemical procedures to examine the chemical yield. The separated Na[99mTc]TcO4 from the ZrMo gel has the 99Mo breakthrough of <10−4 %, radiochemical purity >99 % as well as chemical impurities of Al, Mo and Zr < 10 ppm. The estimation of 99Mo and 99mTc was done by using off-line γ-ray spectrometric technique. The chemical yield of the separated 99mTc from the dissolved molybdenum trioxide is 70.7–75.2 %, whereas in the undissolved zirconium molybdate gel, it is 19.1–43 %. The second method is preferable because it is user friendly in hospital radiopharmacy throughout the shelf-life.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Mr. Mukesh Kumar, A.R. Tillu, Mr. Shivchandan, Mr. Rajneesh Tiwary and other staff of electron LINAC at EBC, Kharghar, Navi-Mumbai and for providing the electron beam to carry out the experiments. We are also thankful to Dr. R.K. Rajawat, head APPD and Dr. K. Dasgupta, Associate Director of the BTD group, BARC for their keen interest in the present work and support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Cyclotron Facility, Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology, Radiation medicine Centre, Mumbai, 400012, India

    A. Gopalakrishna

  2. Radiochemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    H. Naik & A. Goswami

  3. Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    S. V. Suryanarayana & B. K. Nayak

  4. Product Development Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Y. Naik

  5. Accelerator and Pulse Power Division, Bhabha Atomic ResearchCentre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    V. T. Nimje

  6. Radiopharmaceuticals Programme, Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology, Navi, Mumbai, 400703, India

    S. K. Sarkar, S. Padmanabhan, C. Kothalkar, P. Naskar & A. C. Dey

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  1. A. Gopalakrishna
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Correspondence to H. Naik.

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Gopalakrishna, A., Naik, H., Suryanarayana, S.V. et al. Preparation of 99Mo from the 100Mo(γ, n) reaction and chemical separation of 99mTc. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 308, 431–438 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4481-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4481-y

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