Preparation of super(99)Mo from the super(100)Mo( gamma , n) reaction and chemical separation of super(99m)Tc

• Published in: Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry 2016-05, Vol.308 (2), p.431-438
• Main Authors: Gopalakrishna, A, Naik, H, Suryanarayana, S V, Naik, Y, Nimje, V T, Nayak, B K, Sarkar, S K, Padmanabhan, S, Kothalkar, C, Naskar, P, Dey, A C, Goswami, A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0236-5731; 1588-2780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10967-015-4481-y

The radionuclide super(99)Mo has been prepared by super(100)Mo( gamma , n) reaction using two types of natural molybdenum compound (molybdenum trioxide and zirconium molybdate gel) with the bremsstrahlung end-point energies of 10 and 15 MeV. After the equilibrium, super(99m)Tc was separated as NaTcO sub(4) from the irradiated samples using two different chemical procedures to examine the chemical yield. The separated Na[ super(99m)Tc]TcO sub(4) from the ZrMo gel has the 99Mo breakthrough of 99 % as well as chemical impurities of Al, Mo and Zr < 10 ppm. The estimation of super(99)Mo and super(99m)Tc was done by using off-line gamma -ray spectrometric technique. The chemical yield of the separated super(99m)Tc from the dissolved molybdenum trioxide is 70.7-75.2 %, whereas in the undissolved zirconium molybdate gel, it is 19.1-43 %. The second method is preferable because it is user friendly in hospital radiopharmacy throughout the shelf-life.