Synthesis of [11C]/[13C]acrylamides by palladium-mediated carbonylation

Two methods are presented for the synthesis of acrylamides labelled with C-11 (beta(+), t(1/2) = 20.4 min) and C-11 in the carbonyl position. In the first method, [1-C-11]acrylic acid is synthesised from [C-11]carbon monoxide by palladium-mediated hydroxy-carbonylation of acetylene. The labelled carboxylic acid is converted into the acyl chloride and subsequently treated with amine to yield N-benzyl[carbonyl(11)C]acrylamide, The second method utilizes [C-11]carbon monoxide in a palladium-mediated carbonylative cross-coupling of vinyl halides and amines. A higher radiochemical yield is achieved with the latter method and the amount of amine needed is decreased to 1/20. The C-11-labelled acrylamides were isolated in up to 81 % decay-corrected radiochemical yield. Starting from 10 +/- 0.5GBq of [C-11]carbon monoxide, N-benzyl[carbonyl-C-11]acrylamide was obtained in 4 min with a specific radioactivity of 330 +/- 4 GBq mu mol-(1). Co-labelling with C-11 and C-13 enabled confirmation of the labelled position by C-13 NMR spectroscopy. ((c) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007).