Recent Advances in Radical Fluorination

Abstract

The importance of fluorinated compounds in pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and material chemistry has led to the development of numerous methods for electrophilic and nucleophilic fluorination. Radical fluorination represents an interesting complementary approach, but it had been limited due to the paucity of selective radical fluorinating agents. The recent uncovering of easier to handle atomic fluorine sources has led to significant advances in radical fluorination in the past few years. This review presents the newly developed methods for fluorination involving radicals as reactive intermediates. 1 Introduction 2 Atomic Fluorine Sources 2.1 Fluorine as a Selective Radical Fluorinating Agent 2.2 Fluoroxy Reagents 2.3 XeF2 2.4 N–F Reagents as Atomic Fluorine Sources 3 Methodologies for Radical Fluorination 3.1 Decarboxylative Fluorination 3.2 Fluorination of Alkenes 3.3 Fluorination of Boronic Acid Derivatives 3.4 C(sp3)–H Fluorination 3.5 C–C Bond Activation 4 Conclusion