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Molecular Imaging Branch

2.4 Microwave-enhanced chemistry

2 Research Method Development

2.4 Microwave-enhanced chemistry

Minimization of time in methods for preparing PET radiotracers is important with respect to conservation of activity and specific radioactivity.41 Fast high yielding reactions are desirable. Microwaves are able to apply thermal energy very rapidly. Expert application of microwave energy to chemistry and radiochemistry may provide several important advantages, including speed, higher yields and cleaner products. 42,43 We exploited sophisticated microwave devices (Figure 2) extensively for radiosyntheses with carbon-1113,38,44 and fluorine-18.6,15,39,45 We also applied microwave reactors to enhance the speed of key organic reactions to render them useful in our ligand synthesis program.46,47

Figure 2: Automated radiosynthesis platforms comprising the Synthia and RI 521 microwaves cavity (left) and CEM Discovery in Hotcell (right)