A Solid-State Support for Separating Astatine-211 from Bismuth.

Increasing access to the short-lived α-emitting radionuclide astatine-211 (At) has the potential to advance targeted α-therapeutic treatment of disease and to solve challenges facing the medical community. For example, there are numerous technical needs associated with advancing the use of At in targeted α-therapy, e.g., improving At chelates, developing more effective At targeting, and characterizing At behavior. There is an insufficient understanding of astatine chemistry to support these efforts. The chemistry of astatine is one of the least developed of all elements on the periodic table, owing to its limited supply and short half-life. Increasing access to At could help address these issues and advance understanding of At chemistry in general. We contribute here an extraction chromatographic processing method that simplifies At production in terms of purification. It utilizes the commercially available Pre-Filter resin to rapidly (<1.5 h) isolate At from irradiated bismuth targets (Bi decontamination factors ≥876 000), in reasonable yield (68-55%) and in a form that is compatible for subsequent study. We are excited about the potential of this procedure to address At supply and processing/purification problems.