Separation of carrier-free 48Sc tracer and its determination by isotopic dilution

An easy method for speedy and quantitative separation of carrier-free scandium tracer formed by the (48)Ti(22)(n,p)(48)Sc(21) nuclear reaction has been developed. Separation of (48)Sc (1.83 days) from the target titanium metal was carried out by co-precipitating the tracer with calcium fluoride precipitated at pH approximately 4 from the solution of irradiated titanium in hydrofluoric acid. The freshly formed fluoride precipitate was dissolved in conc. hydrochloric acid, and the tracer extracted with tributyl phosphate and then stripped into aqueous medium. The carrier-free tracer was estimated by isotopic dilution. with calcium fluoride as non-isotopic diluent.