Separation of carrier-free hafnium and lutetium radionuclides produced in 16O activated terbium metal target

Charged particle activation with not, vert, similar88 MeV 16O7+ beam on natural terbium metal foil leads to the production of the short lived carrier-free radioisotopes 170, 171Ta and their corresponding daughter products 170, 171Hf and 170, 171Lu in the target matrix. Liquid–liquid extraction with HDEHP diluted in cyclohexane was carried out for the separation of 170, 171Hf and 170, 171Lu from the bulk terbium in an aqueous HCl medium.