Electrophilic ¹⁸F-fluorination is an important method for production of tracers for positron emission tomography. The most commonly employed ¹⁸F-fluorination reagents [¹⁸F]F₂, [¹⁸F]Selectfluor bis(triflate) and [¹⁸F]NFSi
allow for the synthetically simple and fast introduction of fluorine-18
into organic molecules, in particular those containing electron rich
aromatic rings. For the time being the best method for the production of
[¹⁸F]F₂ gas, the most common electrophilic
reagent, is a post-target production which applies a high voltage
electrical discharge to promote the ¹⁹F/¹⁸F isotopic exchange between [¹⁸F]MeF and carrier F₂ gas. The aim of this study was to develop a new method for the production of electrophilic ¹⁸F-fluorination reagents which would avoid use of toxic and very reactive carrier F₂ gas. In this study the use of SF₆ as an alternative to carrier F₂ gas was tested. Experiments were carried out in two different matrix gases: Ne and Xe. The electrophilic ¹⁸F-fluorination reagent produced was used for the labelling of two model compounds (6-[¹⁸F]fluoro-L-DOPA and [¹⁸F]Selectfluor bis(triflate)) in order to prove its feasibility. This proof-of-concept study showed that SF₆ in Xe can be used in place of F₂ for the production of electrophilic [¹⁸F]F₂ gas. When SF₆ in Ne was used only trace amounts of [¹⁸F]F₂ was observed.