Production of (117m)Sn with high specific activity by cyclotron.

A method to produce (117m)Sn radionuclide using accelerator production route is described. A new method is proposed to separate the (117m)Sn. Specific activities and thick target yield for (116)Cd(α,3n)(117m)Sn reaction at E(α)=35MeV bombarding energy were determined. The estimated production yield of (117m)Sn was 37.5kBq/μAh for 13.16 mg/cm(2) natural cadmium-oxide target and 410 kBq/μAh for 11.07 mg/cm(2) highly enriched (95%) (116)CdO target. The method developed for separation of (117m)Sn from Cd using anion-exchange resin (Dowex -1×8, fluorine form, 400 mesh) can achieve 98% radiochemical yield of (117m)Sn with more than 99% radionuclidic purity. The estimated specific activity is 2.4 GBq/mg that can be reached with the used irradiation conditions.