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Technetium-99m (99m Tc) is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99m Tc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical radioisotope in the world.
Technetium-99m is the hallmark technetium isotope employed in the nuclear medicine industry. Its low-energy isomeric transition, which yields a gamma-ray at ~140.5 keV, is ideal for imaging using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT). Several technetium isotopes, such as 94m Tc, 95 Tc, and 96 Tc, which are produced via (p,n ...
Technetium-99 (99 Tc) is an isotope of technetium which decays with a half-life of 211,000 years to stable ruthenium-99, emitting beta particles, but no gamma rays. It is the most significant long-lived fission product of uranium fission, producing the largest fraction of the total long-lived radiation emissions of nuclear waste .
All isotopes of technetium must be handled carefully. The most common isotope, technetium-99, is a weak beta emitter; such radiation is stopped by the walls of laboratory glassware. The primary hazard when working with technetium is inhalation of dust; such radioactive contamination in the lungs can pose a significant cancer risk.
A Tc-99m pertechnetate solution is being eluted from Mo-99 molybdate bound to a chromatographic substrate. A technetium-99m generator, or colloquially a technetium cow or moly cow, is a device used to extract the metastable isotope 99m Tc of technetium from a decaying sample of molybdenum-99.
In these uses, its radioactivity is incidental, and generally the least radioactive (longest-lived) isotopes of Tc are used. In particular, 99 Tc (half-life 211,000 years) is used in corrosion research, because it is the decay product of the easily obtained commercial 99m Tc isotope. [3]
Molybdenum-99 is produced commercially by intense neutron-bombardment of a highly purified uranium-235 target, followed rapidly by extraction. [8] It is used as a parent radioisotope in technetium-99m generators to produce the even shorter-lived daughter isotope technetium-99m, which is used in approximately 40 million medical procedures annually.
99m Tc is a very versatile radioisotope, and is the most commonly used radioisotope tracer in medicine. It is easy to produce in a technetium-99m generator, by decay of 99 Mo. 99 Mo → 99m Tc + e − + ν e. The molybdenum isotope has a half-life of approximately 66 hours (2.75 days), so the generator has a useful life of about two weeks.