The separation of terbium from gadolinium by solvent extraction: Upscaling terbium production for use in radionuclide therapy

¹⁶¹Tb is considered a promising alternative to¹⁷⁷Lu in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors and prostate cancer. It is produced via neutron irradiation of ¹⁶⁰Gd targets and its subsequent separation from said targets. Current separation methods have limitations so a fast removal method of the Gd bulk is...

Luminescence Properties of Self-Aggregating TbIII-DOTA-Functionalized Calix[4]arenes

Self-aggregating calix[4]arenes carrying four DOTA ligands on the upper rim for stable complexation of paramagnetic GdIII-ions have already been proposed as MRI probes. In this work, we investigate the luminescence properties of TbIII-DOTA-calix[4]arene-4OPr containing four propyl-groups and compare them with those of the analog substituted with...

High-strength bacterial cellulose-polyacrylamide hydrogels: Mesostructure anisotropy as studied by spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering and cryo-SEM

Submicron- and micron-scale structures of composite hydrogels based on bacterial cellulose (BC) and polyacrylamide (PAAm) were studied by spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering (SESANS) and cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM). These hydrogels possessing the structure of interpenetrating polymer network were synthesized via free...

Bidirectional current-voltage converters based on magnetostrictive/piezoelectric composites

We report a power supply-free, bidirectional electric current-voltage converter based on a coil-wound laminated composite of magnetostrictive alloy and piezoelectric crystal. An electric current applied to the coil induces a magnetic field, resulting in an electric voltage from the composite due to the direct magnetoelectric effect. Conversely,...

Lanthanide 4f-level location in lanthanide doped and cerium-lanthanide codoped NaLaF4 by photo- and thermoluminescence

Photo- and thermoluminescence (TL) spectra of NaLaF4:Ln3+ (Ln = Ce,Pr,Nd,Sm,Eu,Gd,Tb,Dy,Ho,Er,Tm) and NaLaF4:Ce3+, Ln3+ (Ln = Nd,Sm,Ho,Er,Tm) are presented and used together with the empirical Dorenbos model in order to establish the 4f energy level positions of all tri- and divalent lanthanide ions doped in NaLaF4. The information will be...

Location of lanthanide impurity levels in the III-V semiconductor GaN

Knowledge from lanthanide spectroscopy on wide band gap (6–10?eV) inorganic compounds is used to understand and predict optical and electronic properties of the lanthanides in the III-V semiconductor GaN. For the first time the location of the 4fn ground state energy of each divalent and trivalent lanthanide ion relative to the valence and...