Abstract:
Germanium 68 is mainly used for preparation of the
68Ge-
68Ga generator and the calibration of positron emission computed tomography. The low melting point of the target material in the production reaction
69Ga (p, 2n)
68Ge has limited the availability of Ge-68. In order to use the existing industrial cyclotron hardware to produce Germanium 68, the method of electrodepositing gallium-nickel alloy was set up in this study. Acidic requirements were met through the preparation of the gallium-nickel alloy targets and by optimizing the plating bath composition and electrodepositing conditions, finally confirmed by adjustment of the electro-deposition process, and preparation of the gallium-nickel alloy targets with a gallium content of 75%. After three time irradiation tests, the process was certified to produce targets of Germanium 68. This process is user-friendly, the preparation of the targets is of stable quality, and it can be applied to the cyclotron production of Germanium 68.