Copper(II)-Mediated [11C]Cyanation of Arylboronic Acids and Arylstannanes

A copper-mediated method for the transformation of diverse arylboron compounds and arylstannanes to aryl-[11C]-nitriles is reported. This method is operationally simple, uses commercially available reagents, and is compatible with a wide variety of substituted aryl- and heteroaryl substrates. This method is applied to the automated synthesis of high specific activity [11C]perampanel in 10% nondecay-corrected radiochemical yield (RCY).