Thick Rhodium Plating as the Target for Cyclotron Production of Palladium-103

Abstract

The preparation of rhodium target with high quality and thickness is the key to produce 103Pd by cyclotron. In order to improve the thickness and quality of plating, rhodium sulfate solution is pretreated, and a certain amount of electroplating additives A is added. The target plate for 103Pd is made of copper with a target size about 100 mm×10 mm. The optimal electroplating conditions are obtained according to the important conditions in the plating process (e.g., current density, plating temperature and H2SO4 concentration). In four consecutive batches of experiments, the mass thickness of the rhodium plating is higher than 150 mg/cm2. In the thermal shock and falling test, the plating layer does not show problems such as flaking, and is tight, smooth and firmly bonded to the substrate. After irradiation in C30 cyclotron for 5-51.5 hours, 103Pd nuclide with yield of 5.18-6.04 MBq/(μA·h) and nuclear purity greater than 99.9% can be obtained. The research solve the problem of poor stability of rhodium target preparation process by pulse electroplating, the quality of rhodiumtarget can meet the requirements of 103Pd production.

Keywords

• 103pd
• nuclide preparation
• cyclotron accelerator
• pulsed electroplating
• brachytherapy