Radiochemical Synthesis of Alkyl Geminal ¹⁸F-Difluoroalkyl Motifs Mediated by Silver(I) Oxide

¹⁸F radiotracers are used in positron emission tomography imaging for medical diagnosis and drug development. Current methods to synthesize ¹⁸F-polyfluorinated functional groups are limited in substrate scope and result in radiotracers with low molar activities (A_m). We disclose the synthesis of a range of ¹⁸F-difluoroalkyl groups by nucleophilic substitution of geminal bromofluoroalkyl electrophiles with [¹⁸F]fluoride mediated by Ag₂O. The utility of this transformation to support (pre)clinical imaging is demonstrated by translation to an automated synthesizer.