Separation of radioisotopes of terbium from a europium target irradiated by 27 MeV α-particles

Abstract A method for obtaining 156, 155, 154m2, 154, 153 Tb radiotracers by the irradiation of a europium oxide target of natural isotopic composition by 27 MeV α-particles is proposed. Terbium can be efficiently separated from bulk of europium by the reduction of the latter by zinc in an acidic solution and precipitation as EuSO 4 . The optimum Zn/Eu 3+ and (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 /Eu 3+ molar ratios are 20 and 3, respectively. Terbium is additionally purified from europium and gadolinium by extraction chromatography using LN Resin. It is demonstrated that optimum separation is attained in 0.6 M HNO 3 . The Tb/Eu separation coefficient was ~5·10 5 . The yield of terbium was about 90%. Time of all steps was 1.5–2 h. The proposed procedure makes it possible to obtain no carrier added terbium radiotracers.