The fluorine produced is in the form of a water solution of [18F]fluoride, which is then used in a rapid chemical synthesis of various radio pharmaceuticals.

First published synthesis and report of properties of fluorine-18 were in 1937 by Arthur H. Snell, produced by the nuclear reaction of 20Ne(d,α)18F in the cyclotron laboratories of Ernest O.

[3] Fluorine-18 is often substituted for a hydroxyl group (–OH) in a radiotracer parent molecule, due to similar steric and electrostatic properties.

Tracers include sodium fluoride which can be useful for skeletal imaging as it displays high and rapid bone uptake accompanied by very rapid blood clearance, which results in a high bone-to-background ratio in a short time[5] and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), where the 18F substitutes a hydroxyl.

New dioxaborolane chemistry enables radioactive fluoride (18F) labeling of antibodies, which allows for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of cancer.