Development of radionuclide generators for biomedical applications

A radionuclide generator is a device, for effective radiochemical separation of a daughter radionuclide formed by the decay of a parent radionuclide. Radioisotope generator system represents a cost-effective way to ensure a continuous and reliable supply of shortlived radioisotopes, for clinical investigations and therapies, on an ‘as needed’ basis. Essentially, every conceivable approach has been used, for parent / daughter separation strategies. The column chromatographic process using a bed of sorbent, has emerged as the most popular approach. The inherent drawback of conventional sorbent used in column chromatographic system is the requirement of high specific activity parent radionuclide, owing to limited sorption capacity of the sorbent. Column chromatographic separation has also its limitation in working with long lived â-emitting radioisotopes, owing to the radiolytic degradation of the sorbent. Hence, fresh approaches are required to overcome these disadvantages. Nanomaterials as sorbents in radionuclide generators