Electrochemical nucleophilic synthesis of di-tert-butyl-(4-[18F]fluoro-1,2-phenylene)-dicarbonate

An electrochemical method with the ability to conduct (18)F-fluorination of aromatic molecules through direct nucleophilic fluorination of cationic intermediates is presented in this paper. The reaction was performed on a remote-controlled automatic platform. Nucleophilic electrochemical fluorination of tert-butyloxycarbonyl (Boc) protected catechol, an intermediate model molecule for the positron emission tomography (PET) probe (3,4-dihydroxy-6-[(18)F]fluoro-L-phenylalanine), was performed. Fluorination was achieved under potentiostatic anodic oxidation in acetonitrile containing Et3N·3HF and other supporting electrolytes. Radiofluorination efficiency was influenced by a number of variables, including the concentration of the precursor, concentration of Et3N·3HF, type of supporting electrolyte, temperature and time, as well as applied potentials. Radio-fluorination efficiency of 10.4±0.6% (n=4) and specific activity of up to 43GBq/mmol was obtained after 1h electrolysis of 0.1M of 4-tert-butyl-diboc-catechol in the acetonitrile solution of Et3N·3HF (0.033M) and NBu4PF6 (0.05M). Density functional theory (DFT) was employed to explain the tert-butyl functional group facilitation of electrochemical oxidation and subsequent fluorination.