Production of 13N for Radiotracer Synthesis

Presenter Information

Christopher Prokop, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
John Clymer, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Nick Compton, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Henry Dam, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Adam Hanson, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow

Location

CSU 253/4/5

Start Date

4-4-2011 11:00 AM

End Date

4-4-2011 12:30 PM

Student's Major

Physics and Astronomy

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Justen Pautzke

Mentor's Department

Physics and Astronomy

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Second Mentor's Name

Andrew Roberts

Second Mentor's Department

Physics and Astronomy

Second Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Description

13N has been produced using a 400KeV Van de Graaff particle accelerator housed in MSU-Mankato‘s Applied Nuclear Science Lab. A custom target system, designed and built in this lab, contains a graphite target connected to an external power supply via insulated feed-throughs. Once 13N has been produced in the 12C(d,n)13N reaction the target is ohmically heated, under an atmosphere of hydrogen or carbon dioxide, with a large supplied current releasing the radioisotope from the carbon matrix. The ensuing reaction with either hydrogen or carbon dioxide forms 13NH3 or HC13N and 13NO2 respectively. Radiolabeled 13N compounds are used for physiological imaging, in both plants and animals, via a technique known as Positron Emission Tomography (PET). While the energies attainable with our accelerator are slightly above threshold resulting in a low yield of 13N, the techniques and procedures developed during this research can be implemented on higher energy accelerator systems.