Technical noteRecovery of 131I from alkaline solution of n-irradiated tellurium target using a tiny Dowex-1 column
Introduction
Iodine has several important radioisotopes viz. 131I, 123I, 124I with nuclear and biochemical properties suitable for several biomedical and nuclear medicine applications.
The most common production methods of 131I, 123I, 124I nuclides are based on irradiation of tellurium metal/tellurium dioxide with thermal neutrons in a reactor e.g. 131I produced by the reaction 130Te(n, γ) 131Te131I, or with light charged particles in cyclotrons through various reaction routes such as 123Te (p, n)123I or 124Te (p, 2n)123I, 124Te (p, n)124I, etc. (Qaim, 2003, Clem and Lambrecht, 1991, Qaim and Stöcklin, 1983, Acerbi et al., 1975).
Several radiochemical separation techniques such as dry distillation, solvent extraction, ion-exchange separation, charcoal column chromatography, etc. (Chattopadhyay and Saha Das, 2009, El-Azony and Qaim, 2008, Qaim, 2003, Salacz, 1989, Case and Acree, 1966) have been reported for the isolation of iodine radionuclides from Te or TeO2 targets. Tellurium (Te), either as metallic Te or as tellurium dioxide (TeO2), is used as target material for irradiation. The aim of the present work was to develop a simple, versatile and rapid radiochemical separation technique that would provide no-carrier-added (nca) radioiodine of high radioactive concentration (RAC), with high yield and the requisite radiochemical purity, from cyclotron as well as reactor-irradiated TeO2 targets.
Section snippets
Materials
All chemicals were from commercial sources and were mostly of AR/GR grade. Natural tellurium (IV) oxide, TeO2, Puratonic, 99.9995% (metal basis) purchased from Alfa Aesar, MA, USA, was used for irradiation in the nuclear reactor and for the chemical separation. Iodine-131 was obtained from the Radiochemicals Section, Radiopharmaceutical Division, BARC, Trombay. Dowex-1×8 (Cl− form, 200–400 mesh, capacity 3.5 meq/g of dry resin) was procured from Sigma Chemical Company.
Radionuclide analysis
All γ-ray spectroscopic
Results and discussion
In the present work the radiochemical separation of 131I from TeO2 was carried out using reactor-irradiated natTeO2 target material; however, in practice, production of nca iodine radionuclides, viz. 131I, 123I, 124I, may be produced from isotopically enriched tellurium targets by cyclotron- or reactor irradiation using charged particle and neutron induced nuclear reactions, (Qaim, 2003, Sheh et al., 2000). This requires a separation technique that would provide good yields of iodine
Conclusion
An efficient and cost effective radiochemical technique was developed to separate 131I from reactor-irradiated TeO2 targets in good yield and high quality. The simple technique developed may be used for the large scale production of other iodine radioisotopes with high yield from reactor- or cyclotron-irradiated tellurium oxide targets.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. R.K. Bhandari, Director, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata, India, Dr. A.K. Kohli, Chief Executive, Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), and Dr. M.K. Das, Head, Regional Centre, Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), Kolkata, for their support.
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