Half-life determination of 111Ag

Abstract

111Ag is a radionuclide that can be generated by neutron capture on 110Pd and whose decay properties and production feasibility make it a potential therapeutic agent against arthritis. Due to the discrepancies of recent published values of the half-life of 111Ag with previous published works which are not thoroughly documented for detailed experiment procedures and uncertainty budgets evaluation, an independent redetermination of the 111Ag half-life value is required. In this work, a solid 111Ag source was prepared and repeatedly measured in a high purity Germanium (HPGe) detector to determine its half-life. In total, more than fifty measurements were performed over a period of 26.3 days, corresponding to ∼3.5 half-lives of 111Ag. The experimental method and corresponding uncertainty budget are presented. The result of 7.419(15) days is consistent with the recently published value, 7.423(13) days, by Collins et al. and deviates by 0.418% from the currently recommended value 7.45(1) days. A new recommend half-life value of 7.437(7) days was determined utilizing all available experimental values by a power-moderated mean (PMM) method.