Paper Chromatography for the Radiochemical Control of 90Y for it’s Clinical Uses

Our aim in this work was to develop a reliable technique to accurately determine the amount of Yttrium-90 in Strontium-90 used for therapy. Yttrium-90 which can be used for clinical purposes should be in a very high radionuclide purity, therefore a suitable quality control method must be applied. Also, Yttrium-90 has a short half-life, so speed is very important for determination of its purity. For this purpose, a simple paper chromatographic method was designed and used in the present study. In this method two extractants HDEHP and Cyanex272 were utilized and the ability of hydrochloric and nitric acid for separation of Yttrium-90 from Strontium-90 was evaluated. The results showed that large differences between Rf values of Yttrium-90 and Strontium-90 radionuclides were explored by using HDEHP as an extractant and mobile phase containing 0.9% saline and 0.1M nitric acid. Under these conditions, the radiochemical control of Yttrium-90 could be achieved.