It can be produced with a medical cyclotron, using a target of pure water with a trace amount of ethanol.

For this reason, the proton needs to carry extra energy to induce the nuclear reaction.

The presence of ethanol (at a concentration of ~5mM) in aqueous solution allows the convenient formation of ammonia as nitrogen-13 is produced.

Other routes of producing 13N-labelled ammonia exist, some of which facilitate co-generation of other light radionuclides for diagnostic imaging.

[2][3] Nitrogen-13 plays a significant role in the CNO cycle, which is the dominant source of energy in main-sequence stars more massive than 1.5 times the mass of the Sun.