Separation of No-Carrier-Added 188Re from Neutron-Irradiated Natural Tungsten

Abstract

Rhenium-188 has been determined to be a suitable therapy radiolable due to its unique half-life and β^? emission associated with 155 keV photons and chelation properties. ¹⁸⁸Re is obtained from the decay of parent ¹⁸⁸W in the form of a generator system while ¹⁸⁸W is produced by double neutron capture of ¹⁸⁶W. The yield of generators using alumina for separation is limited due to the low sorption capacity of sorbent. We have exploited precipitation as hydrous tungsten oxide in acid media and redissolution in alkaline media to separate ¹⁸⁸Re from tungsten. The optimized experimental conditions indicate the feasibility of a generator system based on this method.