Direct decarboxylative 18F-fluorination of benzoic acids using visible light catalysis

Abstract

This study introduces a mild method for the direct decarboxylative ¹⁸F-fluorination of (hetero)aromatic carboxylic acids via a photoinduced ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) process. The method allows for the succesfull ¹⁸F-labeling of various benzoic acids (16–40% RCC) and the full-batch preparation of 1-fluoro-4-[¹⁸F]fluorobenzene with an overall RCY of 27 ± 2%.