The application of atomic layer deposition in the production of sorbents for Mo/Tc generator.

New production routes for Mo are steadily gaining importance. However, the obtained specific activity is much lower than currently produced by the fission of U-235. To be able to supply hospitals with Mo/Tc generators with the desired activity, the adsorption capacity of the column material should be increased. In this paper we have investigated whether the gas phase coating technique Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), which can deposit ultra-thin layers on high surface area materials, can be used to attain materials with high adsorption capacity for Mo. For this purpose, ALD was applied on a silica-core sorbent material to coat it with a thin layer of alumina. This sorbent material shows to have a maximum adsorption capacity of 120 mg/g and has aTc elution efficiency of 55 ± 2% based on 3 executive elutions.