Recovery of 18F from [18O] water by electrochemical method

An electrochemical method for producing 18F sources for the slow positron beam was applied to the recovery of 18F from H218O water. The 18F of activities 150–227 mCi (5.55–8.40 GBq) was electro-deposited on a graphite rod and then emitted into pure water. The best result of the efficiency for the electro-deposition for 5 min was 97% and that for the electro-emission for 5 min was 89%. The H218O water is expected to be reused much more easily by this method than by the ion exchange resin method. The metal impurities contained in the 18F solution were considerably reduced by using this method.