Separation of no-carrier-added 66,67Ga produced in heavy ion-induced cobalt target using alginate biopolymers

Heavy ion activation of natural cobalt foil with 84 MeV 12C results in the formation of no-carrier-added (nca) 66,67As radionuclides, along with their corresponding decay products, 66,67Ge and 66,67Ga, in the matrix. Because arsenic and germanium radionuclides are short-lived, after a cooling period of 10 h only nca gallium radionuclides remain in the matrix. We attempted to separate the nca gallium radionuclides from the target matrix cobalt by biopolymeric calcium alginate (CA) and Fe-doped calcium alginate (Fe-CA) beads. A complete separation has been achieved by adsorbing 66,67Ga and a lesser amount of bulk cobalt at pH 3 on Fe-CA beads, followed by desorbing cobalt from the beads with 0.4 M NaNO2.