Acid resistant zirconium phosphate for the long term application of ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator system

The ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator system is an excellent source for producing ready-to-use Ga-68 in clinical Positron Emission Tomography (PET) applications. The column adsorbent is the key component for the ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator system. Therefore, several studies have been conducted to identify column materials with a stable and superior elution yield in an acidic eluent (0.1 N HCl solution). In this study, four different zirconium phosphates were synthesized with a particle size of 200-800nm, pore-size of 55∼190Å and surface area of 0.72-268m²g^-1. Synthesized and studied amorphous zirconium phosphate (ZrP-1) exhibited excellent acid resistant properties for the 0.1 N HCl eluent and a large surface area of 268m²g^-1. Amorphous ZrP-1 showed a good Ga-68 elution yield of 74% in 0.1 N HCl eluent accompanying extraordinary low breakthrough of Ge-68 (0.007%).