Production of high specific activity copper-67
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorsDavid J. Jamriska, Sr., Wayne A. Taylor, Martin A. Ott, Malcolm Fowler, Richard C. Heaton
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Abstract
A process for the selective production and isolation of high specific activity Cu67 from proton-irradiated enriched Zn70 target comprises target fabrication, target irradiation with low energy (<25 MeV) protons, chemical separation of the Cu67 product from the target material and radioactive impurities of gallium, cobalt, iron, and stable aluminum via electrochemical methods or ion exchange using both anion and cation organic ion exchangers, chemical recovery of the enriched Zn70 target material, and fabrication of new targets for re-irradiation is disclosed.
Claims4
A high specific activity copper67 product produced by the process comprising irradiating an enriched zinc70 target with protons of an energy from about 10 MeV to about 25 MeV to produce copper67;
- and,
- separating copper67 from the irradiated target to yield an essentially copper64-free copper67 product having a copper64 to copper67 ratio of less than 0.1 to 1.
A copper67 product characterized as essentially free of copper64 having a copper64 to copper67 ratio of less than 0.1 to 1 and as having a specific activity greter than about 5 percent of theoretical maximum value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.