Electrochemical radiofluorination using a split-bipolar electrode

Electrochemical (radio)fluorination (ECF) is a versatile approach for nucleophilic radiofluorination of electron-rich compounds such as thioether derivatives. However, ECF generally requires high concentrations of supporting salts, which leads to low molar activity (A m) of the final product due to undesired contamination with [19F]F– ions. Here, we demonstrate the first example of radiofluorination using a split bipolar electrode (s-BPE) platform with low concentration of supporting salt. Under optimal reaction conditions, the ECF of methyl (methylthio)acetate (MMTA) using s-BPEs provided [18F]F-MMTA with radiochemical conversion of up to 70 % and high molar activities (28–43 GBq/μmol; 0.74–1.1 Ci/μmol), with approximately 5 mM of tetrabutylammonium perchlorate as supporting electrolyte.