Automated radiosynthesis of no-carrier-added 4-[18F]fluoroiodobenzene: a versatile building block in 18F radiochemistry.

4-[18F]Fluoroiodobenzene ([18F]FIB) is a versatile building block in 18F radiochemistry used in various transition metal-mediated C-C and C-N cross-coupling reactions and [18F]fluoroarylation reactions. Various synthesis routes have been described for the preparation of [18F]FIB. However, to date, no automated synthesis of [18F]FIB has been reported to allow access to larger amounts of [18F]FIB in high radiochemical and chemical purity. Herein, we describe an automated synthesis of no-carrier-added [18F]FIB on a GE TRACERlab™ FX automated synthesis unit starting from commercially available(4-iodophenyl)diphenylsulfonium triflate as the labelling precursor. [18F]FIB was prepared in high radiochemical yields of 89 ± 10% (decay-corrected, n = 7) within 60 min, including HPLC purification. The radiochemical purity exceeded 95%, and specific activity was greater than 40 GBq/μmol. Typically, from an experiment, 6.4 GBq of [18F]FIB could be obtained starting from 10.4 GBq of [18F]fluoride.