For in vivo imaging of molecular processes via positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers of high specific activity are demanded. In case of the most commonly used positron emitter fluorine-18, this is only achievable with no-carrier-added [18F]fluoride, which implies nucleophilic methods of 18F substitution. Whereas electron deficient aromatic groups can be labelled in one step using no-carrier-added [18F]fluoride, electron rich 18F-labelled aromatic molecules are only available by multi-step radiosyntheses or carrier-added electrophilic reactions. Here, diaryliodonium salts represent an alternative, since they have been proven as potent precursor for a direct nucleophilic 18F-introduction into aromatic molecules. Furthermore, as known from non-radioactive studies, the highly electron rich 2 thienyliodonium leaving group leads to a high regioselectivity in nucleophilic substitution reactions. Consequently, a direct nucleophilic no-carrier-added 18F-labelling of electron rich arenes via aryl¬(2 thienyl)iodonium precursors was developed in this work. The applicability of direct nucleophilic 18F labelling was examined in a systematic study on eighteen aryl(2-thienyl)iodonium salts. As electron rich precursors the ortho-, meta- and para-methoxyphenyl(2 thienyl)iodonium bromides, iodides, tosylates and triflates were synthesised. In addition, para-substituted (R = BnO, CH3, H, Cl, Br, I) aryl(2-thienyl)iodonium bromides were prepared as precursors with a systematically varying electron density. As first approach, the general reaction conditions of the nucleophilic 18F-substitution procedure were optimised. The best conditions for direct nucleophilic no-carrier-added 18F-labelling via aryl(2-thien¬yl)iodonium salts were found with dimethylformamide as solvent, a reaction temperature of 130 + 3 °C and 25 mmol/l as concentration of the precursor. For the effect of bromide, iodide, tosylate and triflate as counter anion on the radiochemical yield (RCY) the following order was obtained: tosylate < iodide < triflate < bromide. However, based on the kinetics a different order was observed for the initial reaction rates with: tosylate < bromide < iodide < triflate. The influence of the substitution pattern in ortho-, meta- and para-methoxyphenyl(2-thienyl)iodonium bromide showed an expected strong ortho-effect, which led with 60 % of 2-[18F]fluoroanisole to the highest RCY. Also under no-carrier-added conditions, the 2-thienyl group directed to a regiospecific radiofluorination, thus in all 18F-substitutions no 2-[18F]fluorothiophene, but only the desired [18F]fluoroarenes were formed. With the intention of a systematic examination of electronic factors, the kinetics of the 18F-substitution on substituted aryl(2-thienyl)iodonium bromides were investigated and the determined relative reactivities were compared with the Hammett constants of the corresponding substituents. As result a good linear Hammett correlation and a reaction parameter of  = + 1.16 + 0.2 were obtained. This confirms the SNAr-mechanism and a consistent mechanism over the whole range of investigated substituents. In order to demonstrate the applicability of this method, the 18F-labelling of two pharmacological relevant molecules was carried out. First, n.c.a. 4-[18F]fluorophenol was synthesised via 4-benzyl¬oxyphenyl(2-thienyl)iodonium bromide within 40 min and an overall RCY of 34 to 36 %. Second, a complex AMPA receptor antagonist was 18F-labelled via iodonium precursors; however only with low RCY of 1.2 to 3.6 %. For comparison, the radioiodine analogue was labelled via a trimethyltin precursor and [131I]iodide with a very high RCY of 97 + 2 % within 2 min, thus it was available for preliminary pharmacological evaluation studies. In conclusion, the 2-thienyliodonium leaving group proved as highly effective for direct nucleophilic no-carrier-added 18F-labelling even of nucleophilically non-activated arenes. Concerning the 18F-label¬ling of complex molecules, further optimisation, however, is necessary for this method
