ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nucl. Med.
Sec. Radiopharmacy and Radiochemistry
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnume.2025.1657125
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Shining Era of Radiometals in Nuclear Medicine: Advancement from Bench to BedsideView all 4 articles
Production of 64Cu and 67Cu with accelerator neutrons by deuterons and their separation from zinc
Provisionally accepted
YASUKI NAGAI1*
Masako Kawabata2
Hideya Saeki2Shoji Motoishi2Kazuyuki Hashimoto3
Kazuaki Tsukada4Arata Motomura5Akio Ohta2Naoki Takashima2Shintaro Hashimoto3Masatoshi Itoh4Hidetoshi Kikunaga4
Shozo Furumoto4- 1Osaka University, Suita, Japan
- 2Kabushiki Kaisha Chiyoda Technol, Higashiibaraki District, Japan
- 3Nihon Genshiryoku Kenkyu Kaihatsu Kiko Aomori Kenkyu Kaihatsu Center, Kamikita District, Japan
- 4Tohoku Daigaku, Sendai, Japan
- 5Daigaku Kyodo Riyo Kikan Hojin Ko Energy Kasokuki Kenkyu Kiko, Tsukuba, Japan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The 64Cu/67Cu pair is an ideal set of theranostic radionuclides for treating patients based on their genetic profiles. We propose a novel production route for this radionuclide pair using accelerator-generated neutrons. We report experimental measurements of the absolute activity and radionuclide purity of 64Cu and 67Cu, produced by irradiating 64Zn and 68Zn with these neutrons. The measured results were consistent with simulated values. 64Cu and 67Cu were separated from the irradiated natural Zn and 68Zn using sublimation and column separation techniques. The production methods for 64Cu and 67Cu developed in this study are expected to enhance their availability in an economically sustainable manner.
Keywords: Copper-64, Copper-67, theranostics, accelerator neutron, Deuteron accelerator
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 NAGAI, Kawabata, Saeki, Motoishi, Hashimoto, Tsukada, Motomura, Ohta, Takashima, Hashimoto, Itoh, Kikunaga and Furumoto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: YASUKI NAGAI, nagai@rcnp.osaka-u.ac.jp
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.