Inorganic oxides with potential application in the preparation of a 68 Ge/ 68 Ga generator system.

The ion exchange properties of some tin and titanium oxides with potential application in the development of a68 Ge/68 Ga generator were determined. The best potential candidates, SnO2 and calcined SnO2 , were further characterized by powder X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis and its radiation stability was also determined. Two68 Ge/68 Ga pilot generators (1.85MBq) based on SnO2 and calcined SnO2 were developed and evaluated over 100 and 200 elution cycles respectively, using as eluent different concentrations of HCl. The generator based on calcined SnO2 showed higher68 Ga elution yield and lower68 Ge content in the eluate (75-80% and <3×10-3 % respectively, 1-2M HCl) than the generator based on unheated SnO2 (60-65% and <1×10-1 % respectively, 1-2M HCl). Nano-crystalline calcined SnO2 proved to be a promising sorbent; therefore it should be considered as an attractive candidate to develop68 Ge/68 Ga generators to produce gallium-68 for biomedical purposes.