EVALUATION OF NUCLEAR DATA IN THE PRODUCTION OF 18F FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS

Abstract

Theoretical nuclear data for the production of F-18 was evaluated with EXFOR nuclear data code using two different reaction mechanism 18O (p,n)18F and 20Ne(d,A)18F. The region of interest for 18O (p,n)18F reaction was 0 – 20 MeV, and the maximum cross section obtained was around 0.697±0.02855 barns at the energy of around 5.13±0.1 MeV. The region of interest for 20Ne (d,A)18F reaction was 0 – 10 MeV and the maximum cross section obtained is around 0.224±0.029 barns at energy 6.1 MeV. F-18 undergoes radioactive decay and produces a daughter nuclide of O-18 with the release of energy of about 1.655 MeV and emission of positron. F-18 decay with positron 97% and electron capture 3%. It has physical half-life of 109.77 min. This process is applied medically through the development of sophisticated technologies in what is known as nuclear medicine. PET scanner is one of the techniques used and F-18 act as the radiotracer used. The short half-life, nature of this residual nuclide and emission of positron make F-18 a very good imaging agent in PET scans.