Radioisotopes in Short Supply? Rapidly Recover More with RadSep’s Reusable MRT™ Resins.
Exceptional purity and recovery of radioisotopes achieved by Molecular Recognition Technology™ (MRT™) is ensuring a safe and stable supply of medical radioisotopes for the future.
Advantages of Molecular Recognition Technology™ (MRT™)
MRT™ resins can rapidly recover the desired element at up to 99.99% purity and 99.9+% yield. Due to their high radiolytic stability, MRT™ resins can be used repeatedly, thus minimizing waste that is often associated with other separation methods.
For the fast, clean purification of radionuclides, MRT™ resins offer several advantages:
- Exceptional selectivity, recovery and purity of the individual radioisotope (99.9+%)
- High capacity and rapid bind-and-release kinetics which produce a pure, concentrated product
- Remarkable chemical and radiolytic stability (up to 1.0E+9 Rad) allowing for resin reusability and waste minimization
- Potential single step recovery which simplifies processing flowsheets
Actinium-225 Purification
See why Ac-225, perhaps the most promising radionuclide for Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT), is in short supply, in this explanatory video featuring actinium radiopharmaceuticals:
Separation of Lead-212
Pb-212 is another alpha emitting radionuclide used in targeted alpha therapy. With a half-life of nearly 11 hours, Pb-212 can be purified, prepared and used as an out-patient cancer treatment.
As shown in the diagram, Pb-212 can be produced from the decay of Th-232 or Th-228. The challenge is rapid Pb-212 purification from the other daughter isotopes in the decay chain, including Ra-224. To purify Pb-212, RadSep has developed an MRT™ resin that is highly selective for lead and can achieve 99.99% purity and 99.9+% recovery.
Recycling Radium, Thorium and other Radionuclide Generators
MRT™ resins that purify radium, thorium and other radionuclide generators are also available and can be used to recover and recycle these valuable radioisotopes. For example, Ra-228 is purified with MRT™ by Orano Med for the production of Pb-212. Other generators that are essential precursors to medical radionuclides (such as Ra-225 which decays to Ac-225), can also be purified using MRT™.
Radium Extraction from Brines, Mining Streams and Nuclear Waste
MRT™ resins:
- Are highly selective for radium to ng/L concentrations in brines, mining streams and nuclear wastes
- Have strong radium binding and high selectivity over a wide pH range, including dilute to concentrated acids
Radium is becoming more valuable as applications in nuclear medicine increase and access to radium sources decrease. Thus, it is essential to recycle radium whenever possible and extract it from existing sources, including brines, mining streams and nuclear waste.
IBC has over three decades of experience in extracting and purifying a wide range of metals from multiple sources at industrial scale.
The ability to recover and recycle radium, even from dilute streams, sets MRT™ apart. RadSep offers MRT™ resins that are highly selective for radium and can purify and concentrate radium in a simple, single-stage process. In contrast, ion exchange or solvent extraction separation methods require multiple stages to achieve 99+% purities of radium.
Other Medical Radioisotope Separations
RadSep’s radioisotope separation capabilities span the periodic table of the elements. Some examples of medical radionuclides that can be separated and purified with MRT™ are listed here. Feel free to contact us to learn how MRT™ can be applied to meet your separation needs.
