University of California

Saman Sadeghi

Qinggang He

Artem Lebedev

Mehrdad Balandeh

Provided herein are methods of fluorinating organic compounds. The electrochemical fluorination and radiofluorination of organic molecules using the cation pool technique is described, where the 18F and/or 19F-fluorine ions are added after the process of electrochemical oxidation, i.e., after formation of a carbocationic organic compound (i.e., a compound having a carbon atom with a positive charge).

Electrochemical flash fluorination and radiofluorination

Provided herein are methods and compositions for the electrochemical selective radiofluorination of aromatic molecules. The resulting fluorine-18 labeled compounds are ideal radionuclides for use in Positron Emission Tomography (PET); they are also difficult to radiolabel efficiently and with high specific activity using existing approaches. For example, radiopharmaceuticals such as [F18]L-DOPA, which is indispensable in PET brain disease imaging, may be made electrochemically with high radiochemical yield and high specific activity using 18F-. The invention process described herein opens new possibilities and provides wider access to PET tracers such as 18F-L-Dopa, since 18F- is much more widely available than the 18F, currently used for synthesis of electron rich substrates.

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Saman Sadeghi