Carrier‐effect on palladium‐catalyzed,nucleophilic 18F‐fluorination of aryl triflates

A recently published palladium‐catalyzed preparation of fluoroarenes starting from caesium fluoride attracted interest as a new alternative for radiofluorination. To test this method, a suitable protocol for the synthesis of 4‐[¹⁸F]fluorotoluene and 1‐[¹⁸F]fluoronaphthalene as model systems has been developed. The possibility to perform the reaction under no‐carrier‐added condition was of special interest. It was found out, however, that the reaction requires the presence of carrier, thus limiting the method to syntheses of radiotracers with low specific activity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.