Used in the elution process for technetium generators, or colloquially known as technetium cows or moly cows, Alumina R saves time and increases efficiency in the lab.

Small chromatography columns can be filled with Alumina R on which the mother nuclide 99Mo (t=66h) is retained (adsorbed) as Molybdate MoO₄(2-).

The daughter nuclide 99mTc (t=6h) may be easily removed (eluted or milked) as the pertechnetate TcO₄(-) with a physiological salt solution. The TcO₄(-) is less tightly bound to the acidic alumina.

Pulling normal saline solution through a column of immobilized 99Mo elutes the soluble 99mTc, creating a saline solution containing 99mTc pertechnetate, with sodium as the counterbalancing cation.

Use Alumina R when alumina is required with extremely low pH-value and/or high ion-exchange capacity. An example is the determination of catecholamines according to Anton and Sayre.

They recommend preparing acid alumina by heating basic alumina with hydrochloric acid several times, followed by multiple washes with water.

Alumina R helps avoid this time-consuming procedure.