Patent ID: 7708961

Claim:
A method of isolating a radioisotope to obtain a material with relatively high specific activity for production of a higher specific activity radiopharmaceutical, comprising: vaporizing a source compound containing a first isotope and a second isotope, the second isotope being a nuclear reaction product of the first isotope, the first isotope constituting a majority of the source compound, the second isotope being a radioisotope having a shorter half-life than the first isotope and having at least one of therapeutic and diagnostic properties when used as a radiopharmaceutical; ionizing the vaporized source compound to form charged atoms or molecules of the first isotope and the second isotope; separating the charged atoms or molecules to isolate the atoms or molecules of the second isotope; and collecting the isolated charged atoms or molecules of the second isotope with an oppositely-charged collector to obtain a material having a specific activity above 30 curies/mg.