Seminar: Development and Evaluation of Methodologies for the Production of Large Quantities of Pure Calcium Compounds for Bone Phantom Preparation

Student: Diana Ha

Supervisor: Dr. Eric Da Silva

Abstract

Bulk purification and synthesis of highly pure calcium compounds for phantom and bone dosimeter preparations are extraordinarily challenging due to strontium and calcium being in the same periodic group, such that they behave chemically and biologically alike. The various methods proposed for the separation of calcium from strontium (and other elements) include 1) hydroxide precipitation of calcium in the presence of very high excess calcium concentrations; 2) precipitation of group II contaminates in fuming nitric acid, 3) ion exchange of strontium using crown ether-based resin; and 4) precipitation of calcium through chelation with 8-hydroxyquinoline. These methods are, however, time-consuming, require large quantities of hazardous reagents, are extremely expensive and wasteful, and are not suitable for the bulk separation needed for most applications. This work aimed to design and assess a novel method for preparing large quantities of highly pure calcium compounds.