Half-life measurement of the medical radioisotope 177Lu produced from the 176Yb(n,γ) reaction

177Lu is a medium energy beta-emitter commonly used in Nuclear Medicine for radiotherapeutic applications. In this work, the half-life of 177Lu has been measured using a re-entrant ionisation chamber over a period of 82 days (approximately 12 half-lives). Unlike the majority of previous studies, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ferreira K.M., Collins S.M., Fenwick A.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EDP Sciences 2017-01-01
Series:EPJ Web of Conferences
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714608002
Description
Summary:177Lu is a medium energy beta-emitter commonly used in Nuclear Medicine for radiotherapeutic applications. In this work, the half-life of 177Lu has been measured using a re-entrant ionisation chamber over a period of 82 days (approximately 12 half-lives). Unlike the majority of previous studies, the material used in this work was produced via the 176Yb(n,γ)177Yb reaction followed by the β-decay to 177Lu, producing insignificant quantities of 177mLu. This has resulted in the most precise half-life measurement of 177Lu to date. A half-life of 6.6430 (11) days has been determined. This value is in statistical agreement with the currently recommended half-life of 6.6463 (15) days (z-score = 1.8).
ISSN:2100-014X