Study of terbium production from enriched Gd targets via the reaction 155Gd(d,2n)155Tb

Yizheng Wang; Thomas Sounalet; Arnaud Guertin; Etienne Nigron; Nathalie Michel; Férid Haddad

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110996

Study of terbium production from enriched Gd targets via the reaction ¹⁵⁵Gd(d,2n)¹⁵⁵Tb

Appl Radiat Isot. 2023 Nov:201:110996. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110996. Epub 2023 Aug 22.

Authors

Yizheng Wang¹, Thomas Sounalet², Arnaud Guertin², Etienne Nigron³, Nathalie Michel⁴, Férid Haddad⁴

Affiliations

¹ Subatech, UMR 6457, IMT Atlantique, CNRS/IN2P3, Nantes Université, 4 rue Alfred Kastler BP20722, 44307, Nantes, Cedex 3, France. Electronic address: wangy@subatech.in2p3.fr.
² Subatech, UMR 6457, IMT Atlantique, CNRS/IN2P3, Nantes Université, 4 rue Alfred Kastler BP20722, 44307, Nantes, Cedex 3, France.
³ GIP ARRONAX, 1 rue Aronnax, CS10112, 44817, Saint-Herblain, Cedex, France.
⁴ Subatech, UMR 6457, IMT Atlantique, CNRS/IN2P3, Nantes Université, 4 rue Alfred Kastler BP20722, 44307, Nantes, Cedex 3, France; GIP ARRONAX, 1 rue Aronnax, CS10112, 44817, Saint-Herblain, Cedex, France.

PMID: 37657224
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110996

Abstract

The terbium (Tb) family has attracted much attention in recent years thanks to the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of the quadruplet ¹⁴⁹Tb, ¹⁵²Tb, ¹⁵⁵Tb and ¹⁶¹Tb. However, the scarce availability of Tb radioisotopes is one of the main reasons hindering its clinical applications. To increase its availability, this work proposes to use enriched gadolinium (Gd) targets to produce some Tb radioisotopes (¹⁴⁹Tb, ¹⁵²Tb, and ¹⁵⁵Tb) via deuteron-induced reactions in cyclotrons. The production of the Auger and gamma emitter ¹⁵⁵Tb was chosen as a case study because the ¹⁵⁵Gd enrichment (92.8%) is the highest available from all Gd stable isotopes. The involved reaction is ¹⁵⁵Gd(d,2n)¹⁵⁵Tb. Using enriched thin Gd-containing targets, cross-sections of the reactions ¹⁵⁵Gd(d,x)^{153,154,155,156}Tb have been measured at the GIP ARRONAX cyclotron facility with a beam energy ranging from 8 MeV to 30 MeV. This measurement allows for estimating the production yield and the purity of ¹⁵⁵Tb, and for determining the irradiation parameters for large production batches. A thick enriched ¹⁵⁵Gd₂O₃ target has been then irradiated with an incident energy of 15.1 MeV and a beam current of 368 nA for 1 h. The production yield of ¹⁵⁵Tb is 10.2 MBq/μA/h at End Of Bombardment (EOB) and the purity is 89% after 14 days of decay. These experimental values are consistent with estimation based on measured cross-sections. A comparison of the deuteron-induced and proton-induced production routes is also presented in this paper.

Keywords: Cross-section measurement; Cyclotron-produced radionuclide; Deuteron irradiation; Enriched gadolinium target; Terbium production; Theranostics radioisotope.