Production and modeling of radioactive gold nanoparticles in Tehran research reactor

Gold has two medically useful radioactive isotopes, 198Au and 199Au, for locally irradiating and killing tumor cells. 198Au radionuclide has been produced through the irradiation of the pure gold via 197Au(n,γ)198Au reaction in the Tehran Research Reactor at a thermal neutron flux of 4.5×1013ncm−2s−1 for the different irradiation times. In this paper, the activity of 198Au radionuclide has been determined using MCNPX-2.6 and TALYS-1.6 codes and also the theoretical approach. The calculated results were compared with the corresponding experimental values. The calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental data, thus the used codes can be used as a powerful tool to predict and optimize production conditions in reactor. •Theoretical and experimental integral yields of 198Au are calculated for each reaction.•198Au radionuclide has been produced thought the irradiation of the pure nano-powder of 197Au via 197Au(n,γ)198Au reaction.•Excitation function of 197Au(n,γ)198Au reaction was obtained by the TALYS-1.6 code and ENDF.