Electron linear accelerator production and purification of scandium-47 from titanium dioxide targets

The photonuclear production of no-carrier-added (NCA) 47Sc from solid NatTiO2 and the subsequent chemical processing and purification have been developed. Scandium-47 was produced by the 48Ti(γ,p)47Sc reaction with Bremsstrahlung photons produced from the braking of electrons in a high-Z (W or Ta) convertor. Production yields were simulated with the PHITS code (Particle and Heavy Ion Transport-code System) and compared to experimental results. Irradiated TiO2 targets were dissolved in fuming H2SO4 in the presence of Na2SO4 and 47Sc was purified using the commercially available Eichrom DGA resin. Typical 47Sc recovery yields were >90% with excellent specific activity for small batches (<185 MBq batches).