Measurement of the 177Lu half-life

The half-life of 177Lu was measured by following the decay of sources with an ionisation chamber and with a liquid scintillation counter over a period of 85 and 42 days, respectively. The detector signals showed three major components: decay of 177Lu, decay of 177mLu and the background signal. The half-life value, T1/2(177Lu)=6.6465 (50) d, was obtained by a least-squares fit of two exponential decay functions and a constant background to the experimental data. The data was corrected for decay during the measurements. Residuals of the fit and uncertainty budgets are presented in this paper. The result is in agreement with three out of seven previously published measurement results and the currently recommended value of 6.647 (4) d (Kondev, 2002). A new value of T1/2(177Lu)=6.6465 (32) d was obtained from a weighted mean of our results with the selected literature data.

► Half-life of 177Lu was measured by two methods and a detailed uncertainty budget was presented.
► Half-life value is T1/2(177Lu)=6.6465 (50) d.
► Result is in agreement with the currently recommended value.
► Four out of seven previously published measurement results are discrepant.
► New value of T1/2(177Lu)=6.6465 (32) d was obtained from a weighted mean of our results with the selected literature data.