Abstract
An experiment was performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory using a 140 MeV/nucleon (48)Ca beam and a flowing-water target to produce (47)Ca for the first time with this production route. A production rate of 0.020 ± 0.004 (47)Ca nuclei per incoming beam particle was measured. An isotope harvesting system attached to the target was used to collect radioactive cationic products, including (47)Ca, from the water on a cation-exchange resin. The (47)Ca collected was purified using three separation methods optimized for this work: (1) DGA extraction chromatography resin with HNO(3) and HCl, (2) AG MP-50 cation-exchange resin with an increasing concentration gradient of HCl, and (3) AG MP-50 cation-exchange resin with a methanolic HCl gradient. These methods resulted in ≥99 ± 2% separation yield of (47)Ca with 100% radionuclidic purity within the limits of detection for HPGe measurements. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used to identify low levels of stable ions in the water of the isotope harvesting system during the irradiation and in the final purified solution of (47)Ca. For the first time, this experiment demonstrated the feasibility of the production, collection, and purification of (47)Ca through isotope harvesting for the generation of (47)Sc for nuclear medicine applications.