Cu enrichment using the Szilard-Chalmers effect - The influence of γ-dose.

Cu is an important trace metal which plays a role in many biological processes. The radioisotope Cu is often used to study such processes. Furthermore, Cu finds applications in cancer diagnostics as well as therapy. For all of these applications Cu having high specific activity is needed. Cu can be produced in cyclotrons or in nuclear reactors. In this paper we study the effect of gamma dose on the production of Cu according to the Szilard-Chalmers reaction using Cu(II)-phthalocyanine as a target. For this purpose, irradiations were performed in the nuclear reactor of the Delft University of Technology using a novel irradiation facility helping to limit the dose produced by gammas present in the reactor pool. The obtained Cu activity yield was in general above 60% in accordance to the theoretical expected value. An increase in gamma dose has no significant influence on the obtained activity yield but increases the loss of Cu from Cu(II)-phthalocyanine up to 0.9% and hence decreases the specific activity that can be obtained. However, without optimisation, when reducing the gamma dose specific activities in the order of 30 TBq/g can be achieved.