Nitrogen 15 is an important isotope marker with broad prospects in scientific research and medical fields.

Nitrogen 15 (15N) is an isotope of nitrogen. In nature, natural nitrogen is composed of two stable isotopes, nitrogen 14 and nitrogen 15. Among them, the content of nitrogen 15 is 0.365%, which is a small proportion. Nitrogen 15 can be used as a marker compound and as a tracer atom for nitrogen compounds. It is widely used in medicine, life sciences, chemistry, agriculture and other fields, so its production has attracted attention.

There is no suitable radioactive isotope tracer atom for nitrogen. Nitrogen 15 is used as a labeling compound to label nitrogen. By tracking nitrogen 15, one can study the role of nitrogen in human metabolism, drug efficacy, disease diagnosis, chemical reactions, catalytic reactions, and nitrogen fertilizer application. , crop cultivation and other fields. In the early 1980s, nitrogen 15 had been applied in large quantities in the field of scientific research.

According to the “2021-2025 Nitrogen 15 Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report” released by the Industrial Research Center, drug research and development , disease diagnosis and life sciences are important application fields of nitrogen 15. When drugs labeled with nitrogen 15 enter the human body, instruments can be used to track them. The metabolic process of the drug in the human body can be quickly and accurately understood, disease diagnosis can be carried out, and the speed of drug development can also be improved. In terms of improving medical technology It plays an important role; nitrogen 15 can mark nitrogenous bases in DNA and also plays an important role in the field of genetic engineering research.

Nitrogen-15 was discovered in the late 1920s and was prepared using isotope exchange methods in the mid-to-late 1930s. At present, there are two main categories of preparation methods for nitrogen 15. One is the isotope exchange method of nitric oxide (NO) and nitric acid system; the other is the low-temperature distillation method of nitric oxide (NO). The production of nitrogen-15 by low-temperature distillation of nitric oxide will produce many by-products at the same time. Therefore, the isotope exchange method is the mainstream preparation process and can produce a variety of nitrogen-15 labeled compounds. In addition, the nuclear reaction method can also produce nitrogen-15, but it is technically difficult and costly.

Industry analysts said that the preparation of nitrogen 15 is difficult, and only a few countries in the world have mass production capabilities. In the global market, nitrogen-15 manufacturers mainly include Cambridge CIL of the United States, Thermo Fisher of the United States, Omicron Biochemicals of the United States, TRC of Canada, Sigma-Aldrich of Germany, WITEGA Laboratorien of Germany, and LGC Standards of the United Kingdom. In my country, Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. is the first company to achieve mass production of nitrogen 15. It uses the nitric oxide and nitric acid isotope exchange method, and its product quality is at the internationally advanced level.

The Chinese government is paying increasing attention to the R&D and production of isotope reagents. In the key project of the “14th Five-Year Plan” national key R&D plan “Basic Scientific Research Conditions and Major Scientific Instruments and Equipment R&D”, research on the technical standards for the R&D of typical isotope reagents and the evaluation of scientific research reagents is proposed. Including research on new macromolecular isotope labels based on 13C and 15N stable isotope labels. From this point of view, driven by the needs of scientific research, medical care, etc., and supported by national policies, my country’s nitrogen-15 industry has broad prospects for development in the future.