A new method for radiochemical separation of arsenic from irradiated germanium oxide.

Abstract Radioarsenic labelled radiopharmaceuticals could be a valuable asset to Positron Emission Tomography (PET). In particular, the long half-lives of 72 As ( T 1/2 =26 h) and 74 As ( T 1/2 =17.8 d) allow to investigate slow physiological or metabolical processes, like the enrichment and distribution of antibodies in tumor tissue. This work describes the direct production of no-carrier-added (nca) arsenic isotopes *As, with *=71, 72, 73, 74 or 77, the reaction to [*As]AsI 3 and its radiochemical separation from the irradiated solid germanium oxide via polystyrene-based solid-phase extraction. The germanium oxide target, irradiated at a cyclotron or a nuclear reactor, is dissolved in concentrated HF and Ge is separated almost quantitatively (99.97%) as [GeF 6 ] 2− . [*As]AsI 3 is formed by addition of potassium iodide. The radiochemical separation yield for arsenic is >90%. [*As]AsI 3 is a versatile radioarsenic labelling synthon.