Production and separation of Astatine Radionuclides: Some new addition to Astatine Chemistry

For the first time no-carrier-added (nca) 209,210At radionuclides were produced by heavy ion (7Li) activation from 4 mg/cm2 lead nitrate target. Astatine was separated from the bulk target by three different approaches. Nca astatine radionuclide was selectively partitioned in the (i) polymer rich phase of an aqueous biphasic system consisting of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 (50% w/w) and 2 M Na2SO4 solution (ii) aqueous phase of a liquid liquid extraction system being comprised of a liquid cation exchanger, HDEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid) (0.5%) and liquor ammonia (iii) liquid phase of a solid liquid extraction system of cation exchange resin Dowex-50 and 10−6 M HCl. Very high separation factors have been achieved in all the three methods.