Evaluation of two extraction chromatography resins for scandium and titanium separation for medical isotope production

Abstract

Scandium-47 (⁴⁷Sc) can be used in nuclear medicine as a therapeutic-diagnostic, or “theragnostic,” radioactive medical isotope for cancer detection and treatment. The ⁴⁷Sc isotope can be produced through the photonuclear reaction ⁴⁸Ti(γ,p)⁴⁷Sc by irradiating enriched ⁴⁸Ti target material. The enriched target material necessary for production is costly; ⁴⁸TiO₂ costs ~ $1550/g, and targets can be > 50 g ($77,500) to produce medically relevant amounts of ⁴⁷Sc. In order to keep costs low, a highly efficient separation of scandium from bulk titanium is desired, along with efficient methods for recycling the target material. This research is focused on evaluating efficient methods for the separation of scandium from bulk quantities of titanium using commercially available diglycolamide-based and hydroxamate-based extraction chromatography resins (DGA resin and ZR resin, respectively). The sorption of ⁴⁷Sc and Ti on these resins were investigated at varying concentrations of HNO₃, HCl, H₂SO₄, and HF to explore how they might be used in a large-scale production/processing setting.