Effective separation method of 64Cu from 67Ga waste product with a solvent extraction and chromatography

A simple chemical process with a solvent extraction was investigated as an effective separation method for 64Cu radionuclide from waste production, which is collected as solution after extracting 67Ga and recovering 68Zn target materials. For the production of radionuclide 67Ga, the enriched 68Zn material electroplated on Cu backing plate is usually exposed to energetic protons. The protons produce 67Ga including other radionuclides, such as 57Ni, 57,55Co, 64,67Cu by several nuclear reactions. After extracting 67Ga and recovering 68Zn through several steps of chemical processes, the residual solution is usually discarded even though it contains other species of radioisotopes. In this study, a simple chemical process having a high separation efficiency of 64Cu from the waste solution was investigated. With this method, a promising radiotracer as a diagnostic in PET and a therapeutic in radio-immunotherapy, 64Cu was estimated to be produced as high as 1,200 mCi at EOB within 3 h chemical processing after extraction of 67Ga and 68Zn.