Production of (28)Mg by bombardment of (nat)Cl with 200MeV protons: Proof-of-concept study for a stacked LiCl target

N P van der Meulen; G F Steyn; C Vermeulen; T J van Rooyen

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2016.04.026

Production of (28)Mg by bombardment of (nat)Cl with 200MeV protons: Proof-of-concept study for a stacked LiCl target

Appl Radiat Isot. 2016 Sep:115:125-132. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2016.04.026. Epub 2016 Jun 7.

Authors

N P van der Meulen¹, G F Steyn², C Vermeulen¹, T J van Rooyen³

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Radiochemistry/Center of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen-PSI, Switzerland.
² Department of Nuclear Physics, iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences, P.O. Box 722, Somerset West 7129, South Africa. Electronic address: deon@tlabs.ac.za.
³ Radiation and Reactor Theory, South African Nuclear Energy Corporation Ltd. (Necsa), P.O. Box 582, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.

PMID: 27372806
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2016.04.026

Abstract

A stacked target consisting of ten Al-encapsulated LiCl discs, for producing (28)Mg via the (nat)Cl(p,X)(28)Mg process in the energy region 50-200MeV, is described. This target was irradiated with a 200MeV beam at an intensity of 100nA, providing information on both yield and outscattering losses. Results of a Monte Carlo modelling of the beam and target, by means of the code MCNPX, are also presented. Similar Al-encapsulated LiCl discs were individually irradiated with 66MeV proton beams of 65 and 90μA, respectively, to study their behaviour under high-intensity bombardment. Once removed from the Al encapsulation, the (28)Mg can be separated from the LiCl target material efficiently, using a 12.5cm x 1cm(2) column containing Purolite S950 chelating resin. The eluate contains (7)Be but no other measurable radio-contaminants. The removal of the (7)Be contaminant is performed by cation exchange chromatography in malate media, with (28)Mg being retained by the resin and (7)Be eluted.

Keywords: (28)Mg; Ion-exchange chromatography; Proton induced reactions; Radiochemical separation; Stacked LiCl targets.