Palladium(II)-mediated 11C-carbonylative coupling of diaryliodonium salts with organostannanes—a new, mild and rapid synthesis of aryl [11C]ketones

Palladium(II)-mediated [11C]carbonylative coupling of diaryliodonium salts with aryltributylstannanes for 1 min in DME–water (4∶1 v/v) at RT gives a new mild and rapid route to aryl [11C]ketones. Substituted aryltributylstannanes couple with diphenyliodonium bromide to give substituted [11C]benzophenones in generally very high radiochemical yield (>98%, decay-corrected), while diphenyliodonium tosylates, bearing one or two substituents in one ring, couple with phenyltributylstannane to give a mixture of substituted (30–43%) and unsubstituted [11C]benzophenone (47–66%). These reactions are highly attractive for introducing cyclotron-produced carbon-11 (t1/2 = 20.4 min) into prospective radiotracers for application in medical imaging with positron emission tomography.