Production and chemical isolation procedure of positron-emitting isotopes of arsenic for environmental and medical applications

Abstract

The positron-emitting isotopes of arsenic have unique potential for imaging research in medical and environmental applications. The production and purification of radioarsenic from proton-irradiated natural GeO2 targets is reported. The separation procedure utilizes precipitation and anion exchange separation steps. Two anion exchange procedures were investigated. An overall arsenic decay-corrected separation yield of 80% was obtained. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.