Processes for generating germanium-68 with reduced volatiles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10777331-B2
Application number	US-201715806517-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2017
Priority date	Nov 11, 2016
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

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.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. 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.

2. The process as set forth in claim 1 further comprising contacting germanium-68 and gallium with an ion exchange resin to separate germanium-68 from the gallium.

3. The process as set forth in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the stripped solution comprises nickel and copper, nickel and copper not precipitating with gallium and germanium-68 to separate nickel and copper from gallium and germanium-68.

4. The process as set forth in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the acidic mixture comprises nitric acid.

5. The process as set forth in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the acidic mixture comprises copper nitrate.

6. The process as set forth in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the acidic mixture does not contain a halide.

7. The process as set forth in claim 2 wherein germanium-68 and gallium are dissolved in an ion exchange feed solution before contacting germanium-68 and gallium with the ion exchange resin, the ion exchange feed solution not comprising a halide.

8. The process as set forth in claim 7 wherein the ion exchange resin is a cation exchange resin.

9. The process as set forth in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the precipitation solution does not contain a halide.

10. The process as set forth claim 1 wherein precipitation of gallium and germanium-68 is a first precipitation step, the process further comprising dissolving the precipitated gallium and germanium-68 and precipitating the dissolved gallium and germanium-68 in a second dissolution-precipitation step.

11. The process as set forth in claim 10 wherein gallium and germanium-68 are dissolved and re-precipitated in a third, fourth or fifth dissolution-precipitation step.

12. The process as set forth in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the target body comprises an alloy comprising gallium.

13. The process as set forth in claim 12 wherein the alloy comprises a base-metal selected from the group consisting of nickel, indium, tin, iron, ruthenium, osmium, chromium, rhenium, molybdenum, tungsten, manganese, cobalt, rhodium and combinations thereof.

14. The process as set forth in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the target body is bombarded with a particle accelerator.

15. The process as set forth in claim 2 wherein contacting germanium-68 and gallium with an ion exchange resin produces an eluate that comprises germanium-68, the process further comprising evaporating the eluate to dryness.

16. The process as set forth in claim 15 comprising washing the dried eluate to remove nitrates from the eluate.

Assignees

• Mallinckrodt Nuclear Medicine Llc
• Curium Us Llc

Inventors

• Pipes David
• Uhland William
• Perrigo Melissa
• Owens Mark

Classifications

• B01J39/02 Primary

  Processes using inorganic exchangers · CPC title

• C22B3/37

  containing boron, silicon, selenium or tellurium · CPC title

• G21G2001/0094

  Other isotopes not provided for in the groups listed above · CPC title

• G21G1/12

  by electromagnetic irradiation, e.g. with gamma or X-rays (applications of radiation G21H5/00; irradiation devices G21K5/00) · CPC title

• G21G1/001 Primary

  Recovery of specific isotopes from irradiated targets · CPC title