Preparation of 89Zr by Cyclotron and its Purification and Labeling Methods

Abstract

In order to obtain high quality 89Zr nuclide for nuclear medicine imaging, 89Zr was produced by irradiating 89Y with HM-20S cyclotron. The nuclear reaction excitation function was calculated. The target system was designed and the target was prepared. 89Zr was prepared by irradiating target with cyclotron. The radiochemical separation method of the target and the 89Zr labeling process were studied. The results show that the optimum energy range of 89Zr beam produced by cyclotron was 9-13.5 MeV, while, the maximum reaction cross section was 13.5 MeV energy. The extracted beam current of the cyclotron is 14 MeV, and the residual energy is about 12.86 MeV after attenuation by the vacuum film and the target film. The beam has a Gaussian distribution in the 89Y target, and the range is approximately 0.821 mm. The activity of 89Zr at the end of bombardment was 22.20-85.45 mCi and the yield was about 36.51-63.30 MBq/(μA·h) when 89Y target was irradiated with 15 μA beam for 1.50-3.33 h. UTEVA resin was used to separate 89Zr from the irradiated target. The recovery rate of 89Zr was 86.27%, and the removal rate of Y(Ⅲ) was 99.80%. Successful 89Zr-DFO-NCS labeling was performed with a radiochemical purity of more than 98%.

Keywords

• 89zr / 89y / medical isotopes / cyclotron