The cyclotron production of carrier-free 77Br via the 79Br(p,3n)77Kr→77Br reaction using a liquid target and on-line extraction

In this investigation, 77Br was produced with a 40 MeV proton cyclotron. 77Br emits a 240 keV photon and has a half life of 56 h. In this method a p,3n reaction on 79Br produces 77Kr which decays with a 1.2 h half life to 77Br. A 40 MeV proton beam is incident on a NaBr or LiBr solution through which helium is flowed to extract 77Kr gas. The mixture is moved through a trap cooled in liquid nitrogen where the 77Kr freezes and is allowed to decay to 77Br. Eight production runs were performed with produced activities of 40, 104, 180, 679, 1080, 685, 762, and 118 μCi respectively.