Sorption behavior of low specific activity 99Mo on Ti- and Zr-xerogels as an alternative to fission-based 99Mo/99mTc generators

In order to contribute to the sufficient supply of clinical 99mTc(VII), the sorption behavior of neutron-produced 99Mo(VI) was investigated on synthetized single and binary Ti and Zr xerogels treated at different temperatures, under normal operating conditions. Materials were prepared by the sol–gel method and characterized by several techniques. Sorption batch systems were performed using 99Mo radiotracer to determine the metallic affinity as a function of pH, and a methodology was developed in order to obtain the maximum capacities by surface saturation, where the Ti-388, TiZr-388 (3:1) and Zr-388 samples showed the most noteworthy sorption behaviors (33.1 ± 0.34 mg/g at pH ∼ 6.0, 31.7 ± 0.27 mg/g at pH ∼ 6.5, and 23.5 ± 0.61 mg/g at pH ∼ 6.8, respectively). The molybdenum-99 sorption behavior was also studied by fitting to the Freundlich and Langmuir models, and all xerogels could be described as heterogeneous materials with favorable 99Mo sorption properties. Finally, preliminary studies of clinical-scale 99Mo/99mTc generators were performed, the results revealed the next maximum 99mTc elution yield order Ti-388 (89.6 %) > TiZr-388 (3:1) (86.7 %) > Zr-388 (77.7 %).