Cross-section Calculations of ¹⁷⁵Lu(n,p)¹⁷⁵Yb reaction for production of medically important radioisotope ¹⁷⁵Yb

Nuclear Engineering Division, PINSTECH, P.O. Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan

^* Corresponding author: dearmnadeem@hotmail.com

Published online: 14 March 2025

Abstract

Ytterbium-175 (¹⁷⁵Yb) is considered suitable for the preparation of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals due to its decay characteristics (T_1/2 = 4.18 d). In this study, the reaction cross section via the (n, p) reaction for ¹⁷⁵Yb was theoretically calculated using Lutetium-175 (¹⁷⁵Lu) as the target material. Neutrons with energies up to 50 MeV were considered, taking into account all nuclear reaction mechanisms. The Q-value for the neutron-induced reaction is 312 keV. The produced ¹⁷⁵Yb can be converted back to the parent stable nuclei ¹⁷⁵Lu through beta decay (100%), with no co -produced impurities remaining during the production of ¹⁷⁵Yb. This makes it suitable for the preparation of potential radiotherapeutic and imaging agents. The deterministic codes EMPIRE -3.2.3 and TALYS-2.0 were used in this study with their default models as well as optimized models. Experimental data were also included for comparison from the EXFOR data library. Major newly evaluated nuclear data libraries such as ENDF, JEFF, and TENDL were used for comparison. The results were found to be comparable with some discrepancies.