A facile preparation of ammonium [14C]thiocyanate

Summary An attractive and simple method has been developed for the preparation of ammonium [¹⁴C]thiocyanate from [¹⁴C]thiourea which eliminates the necessity of handling highly hazardous potassium [¹⁴C] cyanide. [¹⁴C]thiourea was isomerized to ammonium [¹⁴C]thiocyanate by heating the aqueous solution of thiourea (12%) in a sealed tube at 160 °C for 24 hours. The product formed was purified by silica-gel column chromatography. A radiochemical yield of 92.7% was obtained based on [¹⁴C]thiourea. The specific activity of the product obtained was 53.3 mCi/mmol (1.97 GBq/mmol) and the radiochemical purity was greater than 99%. This method has not been reported so far for the production of this labeled compound.