This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Fluorine-18 is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Fluorine-18 | |
|---|---|
| General | |
| Name, symbol | Fluorine-18,18F |
| Neutrons | 9 |
| Protons | 9 |
| Nuclide data | |
| Natural abundance | Radioisotope |
| Half-life | 109.771(20) min |
| Decay products | 18Oxygen |
| Isotope mass | 18.0009380(6) u |
| Spin | 1+ |
| Excess energy | 873.431± 0.593 keV |
| Binding energy | 137369.199± 0.593 keV |
| Decay mode | Decay energy |
| Positron emission | 1.656 MeV |
Fluorine-18 is a fluorine radioisotope which is an important source of positrons. It has a mass of 18.0009380(6) u and its half-life is 109.771(20) minutes.
Fluorine-18 is an important isotope in the radiopharmaceutical industry, and is primarily synthesized into fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) for use in positron emission tomography (PET scans). It is substituted for hydroxyl and used as a tracer in the scan. Its significance is due to both its short half-life and the emission of positrons when decaying. In the radiopharmaceutical industry, it is made using either a cyclotron or linear particle accelerator to bombard a target, usually of pure or enriched oxygen-18-water [1] with high energy protons (typically ~18 MeV). Fluorine-18 is often substituted for hydroxyl due to similar steric and electrostatic properties. This may however be problematic in certain applications due to possible changes in molecule polarity.
References
- ^ Fowler J. S. and Wolf A. P. (1982) The synthesis of carbon-11, fluorine-18 and nitrogen-13 labeled radiotracers for biomedical applications. Nucl. Sci. Ser. Natl Acad. Sci. Natl Res. Council Monogr. 1982.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 28 August 2008, at 17:44.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Fluorine-18".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.