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Synthesis

Nickel Appends Aqueous Fluoride For Radiotracer Synthesis

Nickel catalysts mediate oxidative fluorination reaction that could help make imaging agents

by Bethany Halford
October 22, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 43

The 110-minute half-life of 18F doesn’t give researchers much time when they want to incorporate the isotope into radiotracers for positron emission tomography. A new oxidative fluorination reaction allows chemists to add aqueous fluoride to arenes and alkenes in one step, thereby circumventing the time-consuming fluoride drying procedures typically used in radiotracer synthesis (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja3084797). The reaction, developed by Eunsung Lee and Tobias Ritter of Harvard University, along with Jacob M. Hooker of Massachusetts General Hospital, uses arylnickel catalysts in combination with a hypervalent iodine oxidant and aqueous fluoride (example shown). “The transformation represents the first example of fluorination with a first-row transition-metal organometallic and the first example of a reaction that affords aryl fluoride by 18F–C bond formation at room temperature within seconds using an aqueous solution of 18F fluoride,” the researchers note. They point out that because the synthesis is relatively simple, it should be easy for radiotracer makers to adopt.

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