Multi-step organic synthesis of four different molecular probes in digital microfluidic devices

Digital microfluidic devices are a versatile platform for batch chemical synthesis at the microscale. They are compatible with a wide range of chemicals and temperatures, their open structure facilitates evaporations that enable solvent exchange processes which are critical in multi-step reaction schemes, and the use of small volumes permits optimizations that can lead to reduced synthesis time. These properties and advantages are especially suitable for the multi-step synthesis of molecular imaging tracers for positron emission tomography (PET). We demonstrate the reliable multi-step synthesis of four compounds labeled with the short-lived radioisotope fluorine-18