Production and purification of the positron emitter zinc-63

This study presents the production and purification of the positron emitting radionuclide 63Zn. A natural copper target was irradiated with 13.5 MeV protons, and 63Zn was purified by cation exchange chromatography using 0.05 N HCl‐85% acetone as eluent. The production yield reached 1.41 ± 0.19 GBq/μA⋅h at the end of bombardment and 169 ± 30 MBq/μA·h after purification, with more than 99.9% of radionuclidic purity with copper content around 0.04 μg/g. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The positron emitting radionuclide 63Zn was produced from the irradiation of copper targets with protons. Short purification times were achieved by selective elution of zinc ions from cationic resins, and the final product was obtained in high chemical and radiochemical purities.