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Researchers report fastest purification of astatine-211 needed for targeted cancer therapy
Astatine-211 recovery from bismuth metal using a chromatography system. Unlike bismuth, astatine-211 forms chemical bonds with ketones.
In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have described a new process to purify astatine-211, a promising radioactive isotope for targeted cancer treatment. Unlike other elaborate purification methods, their technique can extract astatine-211 from bismuth in minutes rather than hours, which can greatly reduce the time between production and delivery to the patient.
“Astatine-211 is currently under evaluation as a cancer therapeutic in clinical trials. But the problem is that the supply chain for this element is very limited because only a few places worldwide can make it,” said Jonathan Burns, research scientist in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center. “Texas A&M University is one of a handful of places in the world that can make astatine-211, and we have delineated a rapid astatine-211 separation process that increases the usable quantity of this isotope for research and therapeutic purposes.”
The researchers added that this separation method will bring Texas A&M one step closer to being able to provide astatine-211 for distribution through the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program’s National Isotope Development Center as part of the University Isotope Network.
Details on the chemical reaction to purify astatine-211 are in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
K. C. Chen, R. C. Cook, H. Huang, S. A. Letts, A. Nikroo
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 4 | May 2006 | Pages 750-756
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1196
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the current capsule designs for achieving ignition on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 2 mm diameter graded Ge-doped CH shell that has a 160 m thick wall. The Ge doping is not uniform, but rather is in radial steps. This graded Ge-doped design allows rougher surface finish than the original undoped CH design, thus has a less stringent surface roughness requirement.We selected quality mandrels by coating dozens of mandrel batches to ~70 m thickness to amplify submicrometer defects on the mandrels and successively removed inferior batches. The Ge-doped CH layers are made by introducing (CH3)4Ge to the gas stream. The doping concentrations were determined by performing trial runs and were characterized by X-ray fluorescence and quantitative radiographic analyses, with good agreement between the methods demonstrated.The precise layer thickness and Ge concentrations were determined by a non-destructive quantitative contact radiograph. The as-deposited average layer thicknesses of the shells were 9.5 ± 1.1 m for inner undoped CH layer, followed by a 47.1 ± 0.5 m thick 0.83 ± 0.09 at. % Ge-doped CH, 10.0 ± 0.4 m thick 0.38 ± 0.04 at. % Gedoped CH and then 89.2 ± 0.5 m of undoped CH.The atomic force microscope derived power spectrum of the shell meets the new NIF standard. The shells had a root-mean-square surface roughness of ~ 24 nm (modes 100-1000). The few surface flaws are isolated domes ~1 m tall and 20 m in diameter.The PAMS mandrels were successfully removed by pyrolysis at 305°C for 10-20 h. After pyrolysis, the diameter and wall shrank 0.4% and 5.7%, respectively. Except for the outer undoped CH layer, which was 5.8 m less than the design specification, the average thicknesses of the three other layers met the NIF design specification after pyrolysis. The averages of the Ge doping concentrations were within the tolerance limits. The shell's inner surface has root-mean-square roughness of less than 6.5 nm.