Production of 117mSn and 119mSn by photonuclear reactions on natural antimony

Natural antimony targets were irradiated in a 60 MeV bremsstrahlung beam and gamma spectrometric measurements were performed. The goal was to establish the yield of 117mSn, a radionuclide with great potential for application in medicine. Considering that 117mSn is predominantly produced through a photonuclear reaction in which an charged particle is emitted (121Sb(γ,p3n)), the yield of this tin isotope is much lower than the yields of several antimony isotopes produced in (γ,xn) reactions. It has been estimated that photonuclear reactions on natural antimony could produce 117mSn activities needed for therapeutic applications, with accelerators having electron currents of the order of mA. For the used bremsstrahlung energy of 60 MeV, it was estimated how much 119mSn activity can be expected when exposing the antimony target.