Patent ID: 7266173

Claim:
A method for distilling sulfur for preparing radioactive phosphorous nuclide, comprising the steps of: (a) charging powdered sulfur into a distillation zone of a target tube designed to have an upper neck, and a bottom neck which functions as a separation zone dividing the target tube into a distillation zone and a cooling zone; (b) degassing the target tube to form a vacuum therein, and sealing the upper neck by heating; (c) irradiating neutrons into the sealed target tube to produce radioactive phosphorous nuclide from sulfur; (d) placing the target tube in a heating apparatus to expose the distillation zone to heat and to expose the cooling zone to air; (e) heating the distillation zone to distill a remaining unreacted sulfur, and to allow the gasified sulfur to move into the cooling zone; (f) condensing the gasified sulfur into a liquid phase by cooling in the cooling zone, and blocking the liquid phase from leaving the cooling zone by the bottom neck; (g) cleaving the target tube at the bottom neck to separate the distillation zone and the cooling zone from each other, containing the radioactive phosphorous nuclide in the distillation zone and the unreacted sulfur in the cooling zone respectively.