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US 10,777,331 B2Granted
Processes for generating germanium-68 with reduced volatiles
AssigneeCurium US LLC
InventorsDavid Pipes, William Uhland, Melissa Perrigo, Mark Owens
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Processes for producing germanium-68 from a gallium target body are disclosed. In some embodiments, germanium-68 and gallium are precipitated to remove metal impurities. Germanium-68 and gallium are re-dissolved and loaded onto an ion exchange column to separate germanium-68 from gallium.
Claims16
A process for generating germanium-68, the process comprising:
- bombarding a target body including gallium, wherein the bombardment of the target body produces germanium-68 within the target body;
- then
- stripping the bombarded target body with an acidic mixture to create a stripped solution comprising gallium and germanium-68;
- then
- adding ammonium hydroxide to the stripped solution to form a precipitation solution;
- and then
- precipitating gallium and germanium-68 simultaneously from the precipitation solution to separate gallium and germanium-68 from impurity metals in the precipitation solution, wherein germanium-68 forms a hydroxide that is precipitated from the precipitation solution and gallium forms a hydroxide that is precipitated from the precipitation solution.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.