Cyclotron-Based Production of Cu for Radionuclide Theranostics via the Zn(p,α)Cu Reaction.

Theranostic matched pairs of radionuclides have aroused interest during the last couple of years, and in that sense, copper is one element that has a lot to offer, and although Cu and Cu are slowly being established as diagnostic radionuclides for PET, the availability of the therapeutic counterpart Cu plays a key role for further radiopharmaceutical development in the future. Until now, the Cu shortage has not been solved; however, different production routes are being explored. This project aims at the production of no-carrier-added Cu with high radionuclidic purity with a medical 30MeV compact cyclotron via the Zn(p,α)Cu reaction. With this purpose, proton irradiation of electrodeposited Zn targets was performed followed by two-step radiochemical separation based on solid-phase extraction. Activities of up to 600MBq Cu at end of bombardment, with radionuclidic purities over 99.5% and apparent molar activities of up to 80MBq/nmol, were quantified.