A quantitative description of the compatibility of technetium-selective chromatographic technetium-99m separation with low specific activity molybdenum-99.

Technetium-99m generators employing a technetium-selective stationary phase are a chromatographic instrument developed for use with Mo having low specific activity (LSA); particularly, Mo produced by electron accelerators. This paper presents a mathematical description of technetium-selective chromatographic (TSC) Tc separation and analyzes its compatibility with LSA Mo. We developed a theoretical formula for TSC Tc separation by discretizing its pertechnetate selectivity, and validated it using an electron linear accelerator and activated carbon-based TSC (AC-TSC) Tc generators. We confirmed that the activity concentration of Tc obtained from a TSC Tc generator can be calculated directly from its input Mo activity regardless of the Mo specific activity. The formula corroborates that TSC Tc separation is compatible with LSA Mo, and has a practical application in estimating the number of TSC Tc generators required for Tc demand of interest.