Cyclotron parameters for 11C yield

Abstract

Short half-life radionuclides, as 11C (t 1/2 = 20.4 min), are of interest as precursor of many radiopharmaceutics, like [11C] methane, [11C] cyanide, [11C] methyliodide (Cyclotron Produced Radionuclides, in Operation and maintenance of gas and liquid targets, 2012). There are many engineering aspects for designing a cyclotron for radioisotopes production. Feasibility of nuclear reaction by cross-sections is one of the most important (Cyclotron Produced Radionuclides, in Operation and maintenance of gas and liquid targets, 2012), and consequently the nuclear reaction rates at the target. Herein, the research focus addressed the yield production of 11C radioisotope in order to define accelerator parameters. The aim is to establish an arbitrary value of yield (at end of bombardment, EOB), and evaluate how accelerator parameters such as, beam current and time of irradiation vary in according to the expected radioisotope yield after EOB. Data from literature for 11C (Kenneth, in Nucl Med Biol 31:825–827, 2004; Vandewalle, in Int J Appl Radiat Isot 34:1459–1464, 1983) was considered and applied as reference to the EOB activity equation.