• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2018

Organoboron compounds and their derivatives are synthetically versatile building blocks because they are readily available, stable, and highly useful for potential organic transformations. Arylboronic esters are of particular interest due to their well-established synthetic methods: transition metal catalyzed borylations of aryl halides. However, the use of aryl halides as an electrophile has one serious disadvantage: formation of toxic halogenated byproducts. A promising alternative substrate to aryl halides would be phenol derivatives such as aryl ethers, esters, carbamates and sulfonates. The phenol derivatives involve several advantages: their abundance, relatively low toxicity and versatile synthetic application. However, utilization of the aryl methyl ether, which is one of the simplest phenol derivatives, remains as a challenge, as C-OMe bond activation requires high activation energy and methoxides are not good leaving groups. Nevertheless, there have been a significant recent progress on ipso-borylation of aryl methyl ether including Martin's nickel catalysis. Here, we review the current advance on the borylation of carbon-oxygen bonds of unactivated C-OMe bond in aromatic compounds.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.80-87
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• 2015

Carbon-fluorine (C-F) bonds have been found ubiquitously in pharmaceuticals, radiopharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and material science due to their unique properties such as thermal and oxidative stability and lipophilicity to improve bioavailability. For the past five years, there have been significant advances in F-18 fluorination of aromatic complex molecules combined with the development of late-stage fluorination reactions. More recently, direct incorporation of F-18 to fluorinated aromatic molecules via borylation of C-F bonds has been developed by Niwa and Hosoya. In this minireview, we will discuss the progress of C-F bondborylation of fluorinated arenes utilizing transition metal catalysts and the impact on the development of F-18 radiotracers for positron emission tomography (PET).

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 2019

Fluorine-18 is considered to be the radionuclide of choice for positron emission tomography (PET). Thus, the development of small molecule-based radiopharmaceuticals for use in diagnostic imaging relies heavily on efficient radiofluorination techniques. Until the early 2000s, diaryliodonium salts and aryliodonium ylides were widely employed as labeling precursors to yield aromatic PET radiotracers with cyclotron-produced [¹⁸F]fluoride ion. Rapid recent progress in the development of efficient borylation methods has led to a paradigm shift in ¹⁸F-labeling methods. In addition, deoxyfluorination has attracted a great deal of interest as an alternative approach to aryl ring activation with ¹⁸F^-. In this review, methods for radiolabel development are discussed with a specific focus on the progress made in the last 5 years. Other interesting ¹⁸F-based protocols are also briefly introduced. New methods for exploiting ¹⁸F^- are expected to increase the number of ¹⁸F-labeling methods, to allow applications in a range of chemical environments.