Re: F-18 production

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

	Normally, 18F is produced by accelerators, but it seems like you
want to do it with neutrons. To do the calculation, you need cross
sections for the two reactions and the range of the tritons. The cross
section for 6Li(n,alpha) depends on the neutron energy but graphs of this
are available in any compilation of neutron cross sections. The 4.8 Mev
would be shared between the alpha and the triton in inverse proportion to
their masses so 4/7 of it would go to the triton giving it an energy of
2.7 Mev. The range of 2.7 Mev tritons can be easily determined from
range-energy curves. The cross section for 16O(t,n)18F is strongly energy
dependent, but crudely, you could use a cross section of 100 millibarns
(with a little effort, this can be refined). 
	This will give you a reasonably good estimate. Probably the
production will be too small to be useful.

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Wed, 4 Sep 1996, David Hearnsberger wrote:

> If anyone has any information or fingers to point me in the right direction
> for the following problem, please do so:
> 
> I am looking for some detailed information about the production of F-18 from
> irradiation of Li2CO3. Currently, the reaction that I know of is as follows:
> 
> Li-6 (n , alpha) H3(tritium) with a Q-value of 4.78 MeV; the tritons emitted
> in the process produce F-18 following the O-16 (3H, n)F-18 reaction.
>