Liquid-Liquid Extraction Process for High Efficiency Rapid Purification of Copper Radionuclides

According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research, the global market for radiopharmaceuticals was valued at approximately 3.8 billion USD in 2011 and is expected to reach 12.2 billion USD by 2018 (2013). Usually, these radiopharmaceuticals consist of three major components: 1) a biomolecule (BM) responsible for receptor targeting; 2) a bifunctional chelate (BFC) for radionuclide coordination; and 3) a radionuclide for imaging and/or radiotherapy. Specific activity (SA) is one of the most important parameters for characterizing the quality of radionuclides or radiotracers. In many cases, it is the limiting factor for using radiotracers in biological systems, especially when targeting low capacity receptors, or when there is a risk of inducing pharmacological side effects. Competition for the low abundance receptors can arise not only from unlabeled versions of the tracer molecule, but also from other molecules of related structures, such as byproducts from radiolabeling procedures. Therefore, achieving high SA is extremely important for radiopharmaceuticals that target proteins, such as tumor receptors, that are present in very low (nM or less) concentrations in vivo (Woods, Wiseman et al. 1980, Velikyan, Beyer et al. 2004, Velikyan, Beyer et al. 2008, Patil, Gada et al. 2012, Zeng, Lee et al. 2012). However, one of the major barriers to improving the effective Specific Activity of radiometals is contamination from a variety of non-radioactive metal contaminants. In addition to optimizing radiolabeling reactions and/or separation methods, removing the metal contaminants from radiometals is a direct and efficient approach to increasing the effective SA of metal-based radiotracers. A water oil separation device was created for the purpose of purifying Cu-64, for the application of the preparation of promising radiopharmaceutical compounds for diagnosis and radiotherapy. The membrane utilized in the device is capable of separating the aqueous solution from the organic solvent. Based on the data obtained from UV-Vis spectroscopy of the separated two phases that contain different colored dyes, the purity of either the water or the organic phase separated by the membrane is greater than 99 %

Getting light through cementitious composites with in situ triboluminescent damage sensor

Triboluminescent damage sensors comprising highly efficient triboluminescent materials could allow simple, real-time monitoring of both the magnitude and location of damage. The inability to effectively capture and transmit the triboluminescent optical signals generated within opaque composites like concrete has, however, limited their damage monitoring applications. The in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor has been developed to enable the detection and transmission of damage-provoked triboluminescent emissions without having to position triboluminescent crystals in the host material. Flexural tests were performed on mortar and reinforced concrete beams having the in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor integrated into them. The intrinsic triboluminescent signals generated in the beams under loading were successfully transmitted through the optical fibers to the photomultiplier tube by side coupling. Successful side coupling will make a truly distributed in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor possible when the entire length of the sensor is mostly covered with the triboluminescent composite coating. The results show the viability of the in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor for the structural health monitoring of cementitious composites. Real-time failure detection was demonstrated in unreinforced mortar beams, while real-time damage (crack) detection was demonstrated in reinforced concrete beams. Preliminary work on reinforced concrete beams showed that the integrated in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor was able to detect multiple cracks caused by loading, thereby providing early warning of structural degradation before failure. © The Author(s) 2013

Real time failure detection in unreinforced cementitious composites with triboluminescent sensor

The in-situ triboluminescent optical fiber (ITOF) sensor has an integrated sensing and transmission component that converts the energy from damage events like impacts and crack propagation into optical signals that are indicative of the magnitude of damage in composite structures like concrete bridges. Utilizing the triboluminescence (TL) property of ZnS:Mn, the ITOF sensor has been successfully integrated into unreinforced cementitious composite beams to create multifunctional smart structures with in-situ failure detection capabilities. The fabricated beams were tested under flexural loading, and real time failure detection was made by monitoring the TL signals generated by the integrated ITOF sensor. Tested beam samples emitted distinctive TL signals at the instance of failure. In addition, we report herein a new and promising approach to damage characterization using TL emission profiles. Analysis of TL emission profiles indicates that the ITOF sensor responds to crack propagation through the beam even when not in contact with the crack. Scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated that fracto-triboluminescence was responsible for the TL signals observed at the instance of beam failure. © 2013 Elsevier B.V