One‐step reductive etherification of 4‐[ 18 F]fluoro‐benzaldehyde with decaborane

Reductive coupling reactions between 4‐[ 18 F]fluoro‐benzaldehyde ([ 18 F] 1 ) and different alcohols by use of decaborane (B 10 H 14 ) as reducing agent have the potential to synthesize 4‐[ 18 F]fluoro‐benzylethers in one step. [ 18 F] 1 was synthesized from 4‐trimethylammonium benzaldehyde (triflate salt) via a standard fluorination procedure (K[ 18 F]F/Kryptofix ® 222) in dimethylformamide at 90°C for 25 min and purified by solid‐phase extraction. Subsequently, reductive etherifications of [ 18 F] 1 were performed as one‐step reactions with primary and secondary alcohols, mediated by B 10 H 14 in acetonitrile at 60°C. Various 4‐[ 18 F]fluorobenzyl ethers (6 examples are shown) were obtained within 1–2 h reaction time in decay‐corrected radiochemical yields of 12–45%. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.