A new method of production of one of the most widely used isotopes in nuclear medicine, 177Lu, with high chemical purity was developed; this method includes irradiation of the HfO2 target with bremsstrahlung photons. The irradiated target was dissolved in HF and then diluted and placed onto a column filled with LN resin. Quantitative sorption of 177Lu could be observed during this process. The column later was rinsed with the mixture of 0.1 M HF and 1 M HNO3 and then 2 M HNO3 to remove impurities. Quantitative desorption of 177Lu was achieved by using 6 M HNO3. The developed method of 177Lu production ensures high purification of this isotope from macroquantities of hafnium and zirconium and radioactive impurities of carrier-free yttrium. The content of 177mLu in 177Lu in photonuclear production was determined. Due to high chemical and radionuclide purity, 177Lu obtained by the developed method can be used in nuclear medicine.

In our work, the photonuclear production of 198,199Au isotopes for nuclear medicine purposes was studied, and a method for their recovery from irradiated mercury was developed. The yields of the corresponding nuclear reactions were determined, and a comparison of various methods of obtaining gold radioisotopes was provided. New sorbents based on benzo-15-crown-5, which selectively binds gold, were studied, and the optimal conditions for Au recovery with a high degree of purification from mercury were found. It was established that, for the fast and quantitative recovery of Au isotopes, it was necessary to add at least 0.1 mg of the carrier. As a result, the developed method can be regularly used to obtain 198,199Au for the research of radiopharmaceuticals based on them.

To date, the world has accumulated a large amount of long-lived radioactive materials that need to be disposed of or reprocessed. Such materials include nuclear legacy objects containing 226Ra, which is an important material for obtaining a wide range of isotopes for nuclear medicine via irradiation in reactors, cyclotrons, and electron accelerators. For the selective recovery of 226Ra from waste materials, crown-ether (CE) 18-crown-6 (18C6) or its derivatives can be used, which, however, have not been widely studied for these purposes. In our work, the key property of 18C6 and its derivatives, the phase distribution, was studied using tritium labeling. The possibility of introducing a tritium label into CEs molecules using thermal activation of tritium has been demonstrated; a high specific activity of the obtained compounds was achieved (from 18 to 108 TBq/mol). Methods for chromatographic purification of the studied CEs were developed. The distribution of 18C6 and its derivatives between various organic solvents and water was studied in detail for the first time. Subsequently, the obtained data will allow us to choose conditions for the selective recovery of 226Ra from aged sources.

Nowadays, cobalt isotopes 55Co, 57Co, and 58mCo are considered to be promising radionuclides in nuclear medicine, with 55Co receiving the most attention as an isotope for diagnostics by positron emission tomography. One of the current research directions is dedicated to its production using electron accelerators (via photonuclear method). In our work, the yields of nuclear reactions occurring during the irradiation of natNi and 60Ni by bremsstrahlung photons with energy up to 55 MeV were determined. A method of fast and simple cobalt isotopes separation from irradiated targets using extraction chromatography was developed.

Generally, short-lived medical isotopes and/or their generators are produced in nuclear reactors and cyclotrons. During the last decade, the rapidly increasing number of the studies on the photonuclear method of production of these isotopes has been observed. Experimental data on the production of ten radiometals (99Mo/99mTc, 47Sc, 67Cu, 225Ac, 177Lu, 44Ti/44Sc, 111In, 105Rh, 68Ge/68Ga, 188Re) in electron accelerators is presented in this review. The advantages of the photonuclear method for several isotopes were demonstrated, its future was discussed.

Today nanomaterials, including carbon ones, considered to be promising radionuclide carriers for nuclear medicine. We previously determined that nanodiamonds (NDs) have the best sorption properties in comparison to other carbon nanomaterials for the range of medical radionuclides including 90Y. At the same time, it was shown that the surface composition of NDs does not influence sorption and desorption for this isotope. In this work the influence of aggregate sizes of NDs and ζ-potential of their surface in water solutions on their sorption and desorption is studied, using 90Y as an example. It was determined that with the increase in aggregate sizes and decrease in ζ-potential the sorption decreases, which lets specify the mechanism of binding of 90Y to NDs. It was shown that creation of suspension with determined sizes of particles is an important task for the future use of NDs as medical radionuclide carriers.

Currently, a wide range of nanomaterials, including carbon nanomaterials (CNMs), are being investigated as possible carriers of radionuclides for nuclear medicine as a part of radiopharmaceuticals (RPs). The present work considers the possibility of using nanodiamonds (ND) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes and their derivatives to act as a potential basis for RPs containing bismuth which have radioisotopes 212,213Bi for targeted alpha-therapy. To study this, the kinetics of Bi(III) sorption onto selected CNMs in aqueous media with different pH, as well as Bi(III) desorption from these samples by a solution of fetal bovine serum at 37 ̊C were investigated. The optimal conditions for the sorption of Bi(III) onto the studied CNMs were found; it was shown that oxidized ND was the most promising carrier for bismuth isotopes: sorption at pH 3 to 7 for this sample was close to quantitative, and desorption in 120 min does not exceed 5 %. The cytotoxicity of CNMs was investigated in the standard MTT test, it was shown that LC50 for all studied samples was > 200 μg/mL.