Development of Ionic Liquid Impregnated Resins for the Separation of Critical Materials

Ionic liquid impregnated resins have been utilized for the separation of metals, but their use in the separating medically relevant radiometals is underutilized. This work aspires to develop an ionic liquid impregnated resin that is easily tunable for the separation of a variety of medically relevant radiometals. The resin synthesis – including the addition of extractants – must be fast and efficient. The resulting resin must be able to quickly and efficiently separate the metals of interest: rare-earth elements, platinum group metals, and transition metals. The radiometals that will be utilized for this work will be produced through the charged particle bombardment of a target. The target will then be dissolved and the radiometal of interest can be separated from the target material for further processing (i.e., radiolabeling). Preliminary data indicates the resin that has been developed shows promise in the separation of the previously mentioned metal groups. Further studies must be conducted to refine the resin synthesis technique as well as improve the efficacy of metal separation.