Separation of Carrier-Free Holmium-166 from Neutron-Irradiated Dysprosium Targets

Ekaterina Dadachova, Saed Mirzadeh, Richard M. Lambrecht, Eric L. Hetherington, F. F. Knapp

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Holmium-166 (166Ho, t1/2 = 26.4 h) is utilized in radiotherapeutic applications such as radioimmunospecific pharmaceuticals, bone marrow ablation, and radiation synovectomy. High specific activity 166Ho can be obtained from the decay of dysprosium-166 (166Dy, t1/2 = 81.5 h). Dysprosium-166 is produced by the 164Dy[n,γ]165Dy-[n,γ]166Dy reaction in a nuclear reactor. The applicability of reversed phase ion-exchange chromatographic methods was demonstrated for the separation of carrier-free 166Ho from milligram quantities of 164Dy2O3 irradiated targets. An efficient and quantitative separation was achieved utilizing a metal-free HPLC system with Dowex AG 50WX12 or Aminex-A5 cation exchangers and α-hydroxyisobutyric acid (α-HIBA) as the eluent (0.085 M, pH = 4.3 adjusted with NH4OH). The Aminex-A5 column gave a separation factor of #x223C;103 between Ho and Dy. Subsequent to the acidic destruction of the Ho-HIBA complex, Ho3+ was further purified on a small cation-exchange column from acidic chloride solutions. The separation was achieved within 2 h, with a 95% overall radiochemical yield for carrier-free 166Ho with a Dy breakthrough of #x003C;0.1%.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4272-4277
Number of pages6
JournalAnalytical Chemistry
Volume66
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 1994
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry

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