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Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking

Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) is a technique which non-invasively tracks tracer particles labelled with a positron emitting radionuclide in a system of flow. The tracers are tracked through the detection in a PET scanner, of the two nearly collinear 511 keV gamma rays resulting from the...

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Main Author: Van Heerden, Michael Rudi
Other Authors: Franzidis, Jean-Paul
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Chemical Engineering 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Van Heerden, Michael Rudi
author2 Franzidis, Jean-Paul
author_browse Franzidis, Jean-Paul
Van Heerden, Michael Rudi
author_facet Franzidis, Jean-Paul
Van Heerden, Michael Rudi
author_sort Van Heerden, Michael Rudi
collection Thesis
description Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) is a technique which non-invasively tracks tracer particles labelled with a positron emitting radionuclide in a system of flow. The tracers are tracked through the detection in a PET scanner, of the two nearly collinear 511 keV gamma rays resulting from the annihilations of the positrons. For this technique to be effective, the tracer must be representative of the media in the system under study, and labelled with a sufficient activity of radionuclides. Organic ion exchange resins are suitable tracer materials for PEPT experiments, and are usually labelled with ⁶⁸Ga at the laboratories of PEPT Cape Town. The labelling performance relies on the chemical and physical properties of organic strongly acidic cation exchange resins and the nuclear chemistry of ⁶⁸Ga. The objective of this study is to obtain consistent tracer labelling throughout, or even beyond, the lifespan of the SnO₂ ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator which degrades over time. The objective 1s achieved by integrating a purification technique into a "standard" radiolabelling method used at iThemba LABS. A small 0.5 ml Amberchrom CG-71 column is loaded with the ⁶⁸Ga generator eluent in 7 M HCl, then rinsed of most the contaminants before eluting the product with distilled water and used in the radiolabelling method. Using a 1-year-old 30 mCi SnO₂ ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator eluent that has been purified by this method improved the radiolabelling performance by an average of at least 10% when compared to the performance of the un-purified product. Purifying the generator eluent will enable PEPT experiments of longer duration, and in highly shielded systems where tracers with high activity are required, such as granular and fluid flow in engineering applications.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24310
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:20.437Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Chemical Engineering
publisherStr Department of Chemical Engineering
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24310 Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking Van Heerden, Michael Rudi Franzidis, Jean-Paul Buffler, Andy Chemical Engineering Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) is a technique which non-invasively tracks tracer particles labelled with a positron emitting radionuclide in a system of flow. The tracers are tracked through the detection in a PET scanner, of the two nearly collinear 511 keV gamma rays resulting from the annihilations of the positrons. For this technique to be effective, the tracer must be representative of the media in the system under study, and labelled with a sufficient activity of radionuclides. Organic ion exchange resins are suitable tracer materials for PEPT experiments, and are usually labelled with ⁶⁸Ga at the laboratories of PEPT Cape Town. The labelling performance relies on the chemical and physical properties of organic strongly acidic cation exchange resins and the nuclear chemistry of ⁶⁸Ga. The objective of this study is to obtain consistent tracer labelling throughout, or even beyond, the lifespan of the SnO₂ ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator which degrades over time. The objective 1s achieved by integrating a purification technique into a "standard" radiolabelling method used at iThemba LABS. A small 0.5 ml Amberchrom CG-71 column is loaded with the ⁶⁸Ga generator eluent in 7 M HCl, then rinsed of most the contaminants before eluting the product with distilled water and used in the radiolabelling method. Using a 1-year-old 30 mCi SnO₂ ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator eluent that has been purified by this method improved the radiolabelling performance by an average of at least 10% when compared to the performance of the un-purified product. Purifying the generator eluent will enable PEPT experiments of longer duration, and in highly shielded systems where tracers with high activity are required, such as granular and fluid flow in engineering applications. 2017-05-16T07:59:13Z 2017-05-16T07:59:13Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters MSc (Eng) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24310 eng application/pdf Department of Chemical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Chemical Engineering
Van Heerden, Michael Rudi
Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking
title_full Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking
title_fullStr Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking
title_full_unstemmed Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking
title_short Improving the selectivity of the radio-labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking
title_sort improving the selectivity of the radio labelling of ion exchange resin tracers for positron emission particle tracking
topic Chemical Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24310
work_keys_str_mv AT vanheerdenmichaelrudi improvingtheselectivityoftheradiolabellingofionexchangeresintracersforpositronemissionparticletracking