Electrophilic Fluorinating Reagent Research Articles

Ligand-Enabled Oxidative Fluorination of Gold(I) and Light-Induced Aryl-F Coupling at Gold(III).

MeDalphos Au(I) complexes featuring aryl, alkynyl, and alkyl groups readily react with electrophilic fluorinating reagents such as N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide and Selectfluor. The ensuing [(MeDalphos)Au(R)F]+ complexes have been isolated and characterized by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy as well as X-ray diffraction. They adopt a square-planar contra-thermodynamic structure, with F trans to N. DFT/IBO calculations show that the N lone pair of MeDalphos assists and directs the transfer of F+ to gold. The [(MeDalphos)Au(Ar)F]+ (Ar = Mes, 2,6-F2Ph) complexes smoothly engage in C-C cross-coupling with PhCCSiMe3 and Me3SiCN, providing direct evidence for the oxidative fluorination/transmetalation/reductive elimination sequence proposed for F+-promoted gold-catalyzed transformations. Moreover, direct reductive elimination to forge a C-F bond at Au(III) was explored and substantiated. Thermal means proved unsuccessful, leading mostly to decomposition, but irradiation with UV-visible light enabled efficient promotion of aryl-F coupling (up to 90% yield). The light-induced reductive elimination proceeds under mild conditions; it works even with the electron-deprived 2,6-difluorophenyl group, and it is not limited to the contra-thermodynamic form of the aryl Au(III) fluoride complexes.

Carbofluorination of π‐Bonds and Related Reactions Involving Tandem C−C/C−F Bond Formation

AbstractDue to the unique properties of C−F bonds, organofluorine compounds occupy a privileged space in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and polymer industries. Carbofluorination reactions involve the formation of a C−C and a C−F bond, typically across a π‐bond or another unsaturated functionality that is revealed upon in situ activation. The design of tailored substrates and new catalyst systems has enabled carbofluorination chemistry to emerge as a promising manifold for the synthesis of unique fluorinated scaffolds. This review covers the application of nucleophilic and electrophilic fluorinating reagents in this chemistry, in addition to recently developed atom‐economical carbofluorination reactions using organofluorine compounds as dual reagents.

Ring-Opening 1,3-Sulfonylation-Fluorination of Donor-Acceptor Cyclopropanes: Three-Component Access to γ-Fluorosulfones.

A general method for 1,3-bisfunctionalization of donor-acceptor (D-A) cyclopropanes using sulfinate salts and electrophilic fluorination reagents is described. Utilizing Lewis acid catalysis, nucleophilic ring-opening by the sulfinate anion followed by trapping of electrophilic fluorine by the anionic intermediate leads to the formation of γ-fluorosulfones. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct one-step synthesis of sulfones fluorinated in the γ-position from a carbon backbone. A mechanistic proposal is presented based on experimental evidence.

N-Fluoro Ammonium Salts of Cinchona Alkaloids in Enantioselective Electrophilic Fluorination.

From 2000, our two research groups independently and simultaneously designed and developed a novel family of electrophilic fluorinating reagents based on the use of Cinchona alkaloids. The chiral N-fluoro ammonium salts demonstrated the highest efficiency compared to prior art in enantioselective electrophilic fluorination for a wide range of substrates. In this account, we tell our respective stories, how the same idea germinated in our laboratories, the characterization of the chiral reagents, the use in stoichiometric quantity then the development of a catalytic version, the application to the synthesis of chiral fluorinated molecules of pharmaceutical interest, and finally the exploitation of our reagents by other teams and for other applications.

Elemental Sulfur-Mediated Transformation of Carboxylic Acids to Acyl Fluorides by Electrophilic Fluorinating Reagent, Selectfluor.

The elemental sulfur-mediated synthesis of acyl fluorides from carboxylic acids is achieved using Selectfluor. A broad range of acyl fluorides are accessible from carboxylic acids while avoiding the formation of acid anhydrides. 19F NMR spectra suggest that S8-fluoro-sulfonium cation A and neutral S8-difluoride A' generated in situ are the reactive species in this deoxyfluorination reaction.

One-step Oxidative Monofluorination of Electron-Deficient Sulfoxides to Access Highly Lewis Acidic Sulfur(VI) Cations.

The strongly oxidizing, powerful electrophilic fluorination reagent [FXe][OTf] is shown to effect direct oxidative monofluorination of sulfoxides. This one-step, chloride promoter-free methodology provides access to so far inaccessible, yet highly desirable strongly Lewis acidic fluorosulfoxonium cations from electron-deficient and/or sterically demanding sulfoxides that are shown to be practically unreactive towards the previously reported XeF2 /NEt4 Cl system. Experimental and density functional theory studies have been conducted to assess the Lewis acidities of the prepared sulfur(VI) cations. Preliminary results obtained with chiral sulfoxides provide early insights into the mechanism of these fluorination reactions.

A Fruitful Decade of Organofluorine Chemistry: New Reagents and Reactions

A Fruitful Decade of Organofluorine Chemistry: New Reagents and Reactions

Easy Csp2–Csp2 reductive elimination from organoplatinum complexes by electrophilic fluorinating reagents

Electrophilic fluorination of bisaryl-platinum(II) complexes at RT leads to an exceptionally fast Ar–Ar instead of Ar–F reductive elimination. By reacting bisphosphine bisaryl-platinum(II) complex with NFSI, the biaryl product was formed with >90% yield within <30 minutes at RT. Moreover, by experimental and computational studies, the influence of ancillary ligands on the Ar–Ar reductive elimination reaction was investigated by changing their steric and electronic effects. The stability of some platinum fluoride complexes in the presence of water was also investigated.

Diverse Catalytic Reactions for the Stereoselective Synthesis of Cyclic Dinucleotide MK-1454.

As practitioners of organic chemistry strive to deliver efficient syntheses of the most complex natural products and drug candidates, further innovations in synthetic strategies are required to facilitate their efficient construction. These aspirational breakthroughs often go hand-in-hand with considerable reductions in cost and environmental impact. Enzyme-catalyzed reactions have become an impressive and necessary tool that offers benefits such as increased selectivity and waste limitation. These benefits are amplified when enzymatic processes are conducted in a cascade in combination with novel bond-forming strategies. In this article, we report a highly diastereoselective synthesis of MK-1454, a potent agonist of the stimulator of interferon gene (STING) signaling pathway. The synthesis begins with the asymmetric construction of two fluoride-bearing deoxynucleotides. The routes were designed for maximum convergency and selectivity, relying on the same benign electrophilic fluorinating reagent. From these complex subunits, four enzymes are used to construct the two bridging thiophosphates in a highly selective, high yielding cascade process. Critical to the success of this reaction was a thorough understanding of the role transition metals play in bond formation.

Ni-catalysed deamidative fluorination of amides with electrophilic fluorinating reagents.

We describe here a Ni-catalysed deamidative fluorination of diverse amides with electrophilic fluorinating reagents. Different types of amides including aromatic amides and olefinic amides were well compatible, affording the corresponding acyl fluorides in good to excellent yields.

Mechanistic study of the bismuth mediated fluorination of arylboronic esters and further rational design.

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed to gain insight into the catalytic mechanism of the bismuth redox catalyzed fluorination of arylboronic esters to deliver the widely used arylfluoride compounds (Science 2020, 367, 313–317). The study reveals that the whole catalysis can be characterized via three stages: (i) transmetallation generates the Bi(iii) intermediate 5, capitalizing on the use of KF as an activator. (ii) 5 then reacts with the electrophilic fluorination reagent 1-fluoro-2,6-dichloropyridinium 4via oxidative addition to give the Bi(v) intermediate IM4A. (iii) IM4A undergoes a reductive elimination step to yield aryl fluoride compounds and regenerates the bismuth catalyst for the next catalytic cycle. Each stage is kinetically and thermodynamically feasible. The transmetallation step, with a barrier of 25.4 kcal mol−1, is predicted to be the rate-determining step (RDS) during the whole catalytic cycle. Furthermore, based on a mechanistic study, new catalysts with the framework of tethered bis-anionic ligands were designed, which will help to improve current catalytic systems and develop new bismuth mediated fluorination of arylboronic esters.

A machine learning approach for predicting the fluorination strength of electrophilic fluorinating reagents.

The unusual properties of a wide range of organofluorine compounds have provided strong incentives to the scientific community for the development of this field. In parallel to the constantly growing number of organofluorine compounds, an unusually high number of electrophilic N-F fluorinating reagents have emerged as potential fluorinators to achieve fluorine substitution in a simple and efficient manner. Bench stability, crystalline nature and modular synthesis are some of the key characteristics that make them increasingly important in synthetic transformations. In this context, it is important to understand the reactive power of these N-F fluorinating reagents in a quantitative manner. Experimental and DFT investigations to obtain a quantitative understanding of the fluorination power of these reagents are resource intensive, laborious and expensive. Herein, we propose a machine learning approach for predicting the relative power of a wide range of N-F fluorinating reagents by utilizing a simple and fast SMILES-based molecular encoding approach. A neural network algorithm was employed on a novel dataset consisting of four molecular descriptors, two categorical descriptors and 260 data points and was successful in predicting the fluorine plus detachment values for N-F fluorinating reagents belonging to six different categories.

Bench-Stable Electrophilic Fluorinating Reagents for Highly Selective Mono- and Difluorination of Silyl Enol Ethers.

Efficient methods for the synthesis of fluorinated compounds have been intensively studied, recently. Development of practical fluorinating reagents is indispensable for this purpose. Herein, bench-stable electrophilic fluorinating reagents were synthesized as N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) substitutes. Reagents obtained by replacing one of the NFSI sulfonyl groups with an acyl group led to the highly selective monofluorination of silyl enol ethers with suppression of undesired overreaction, that is, difluorination. On the other hand, reagents bearing electron-withdrawing substituents at NFSI benzenesulfonyl groups efficiently facilitated the difluorination of silyl enol ethers under base-free conditions. Thus, both mono- and difluorinated target materials were prepared from the same substrate.

Reactivities of electrophilic N-F fluorinating reagents.

Electrophilic fluorination represents one of the most direct and useful methods available for the selective introduction of fluorine into organic compounds. Electrophilic fluorinating reagents of the N-F class have revolutionised the incorporation of fluorine atoms into both pharmaceutically- and agrochemically-important substrates. Since the earliest N-F reagents were commercialised in the 1990s, their reactivities have been investigated using qualitative and, more recently, quantitative methods. This review discusses the different experimental approaches employed to determine reactivities of N-F reagents, focussing on the kinetics studies reported in recent years. We make critical evaluations of the experimental approaches against each other, theoretical approaches, and their applicability towards practical problems. The opportunities for achieving more efficient synthetic electrophilic fluorination processes through kinetic understanding are highlighted.

Electrophilic fluorination using PhIO/HF·THF reagent

New electrophilic fluorination reagent HF·THF/PhIO was introduced and tested on three general classes of compounds. Compared with the literature data reported for basic reagents, such as HF/TEA/PhIO and HF/Py/PhIO, the new reagent showed superior performance in fluorination of aromatic alkenes, subpar reactivity with ketones and malonates, while in the reactions with 1,3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds the results were much the same as the literature data.

Frontispiece: Synthesis of Well‐Defined High‐Valent Palladium Complexes by Oxidation of Their Palladium(II) Precursors

Synthetic approaches to PdIII/IV complexes starting from their PdII precursors, and the advances in this research area from early 2010 to late 2019 are presented, thereby covering oxidations exploiting various oxidizing agents including hypervalent iodine reagents, halogens, electrophilic fluorination reagents, alkyl/aryl halides, ferrocenium salts, peroxides/O2, sulfonyl chlorides, as well as a “greener” electrooxidation manner. Read more in the Minireview by S. Guo et al. on page 9430 ff.

Synthesis of Well-Defined High-Valent Palladium Complexes by Oxidation of Their Palladium(II) Precursors.

The last decade has witnessed the rapid development of high-valent Pd-involved organic transformations. This has also led to a steadily growing number of publications concerning the preparation of isolable and characterizable palladium(III) and palladium(IV) complexes. A variety of one-electron and two-electron oxidants have been employed to give access to high-oxidation-state Pd compounds. Undoubtedly, the study of these stoichiometric reactions has great implications for relevant Pd-mediated catalysis. In this minireview, the focus is on the synthetic approaches to structurally determined PdIII/IV complexes starting from their PdII precursors, and the advances in this research area from early 2010 to late 2019 will be highlighted. Chemical oxidations exploiting various oxidizing agents including 1) hypervalent iodine reagents; 2) halogens; 3) electrophilic fluorination reagents; 4) alkyl/aryl halides; 5) ferrocenium salts; 6) peroxides/O2 ; 7) sulfonyl chlorides; and 8) others are covered. A "greener" electrooxidation manner has also been reviewed.

Recent Advances in Electrochemical Systems for Selective Fluorination of Organic Compounds.

Organofluorine compounds are key materials applied in daily life because of their versatile utility as functional materials, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals. Development of the selective fluorination of organic molecules under safe conditions is therefore one of the most important subjects in modern synthetic organofluorine chemistry. Thus, various electrophilic fluorination reagents such as XeF2, (PhSO2)2NF (NFSI), Et2NSF3 (DAST), (MeOCH2CH2)2NSF3 (Deoxofluor), 1-chloromethyl-4-fluoro-1,4-diazoniabicyclo-[2.2.2]octane bis(tetrafluoroborate) (Selectfluor), N-fluoropyridinium salts, and 4-tert-butyl-2,6-dimethylphenylsulfur trifluoride (Fluolead) have been developed for chemical fluorination to date and the development of new fluorinating reagents is still ongoing. Electrochemical synthesis has recently attracted much attention from the perspective of green sustainable chemistry because no hazardous reagents are required and scale-up is generally easy. Although electrochemical perfluorination of organic compounds using a nickel anode in anhydrous HF has been well-established to manufacture perfluoro-functional materials, electrochemical partial fluorination (selective electrochemical fluorination) has been underdeveloped due to the low nucleophilicity of fluoride ions and anode passivation, which interferes with electrolysis. Selective electrochemical fluorination can be commonly achieved in aprotic solvents containing fluoride ions to provide mostly mono- and difluorinated products. Electrolysis is conducted at constant potentials slightly higher than the first oxidation potential of a substrate. Constant current electrolysis is also effective for selective fluorination in many cases. Choice of the combination of a supporting fluoride salt and an electrolytic solvent is most important to accomplish efficient selective fluorination. In this Account, we focus on our recent work on the electrochemical mono- and difluorination of various organic compounds and their synthetic application. We first briefly explain our research background of electrochemical fluorination. Main factors such as the effects of fluoride salts as supporting electrolytes, electrolytic solvents, and anode materials on the selectivity and efficiency of fluorination are discussed. Next, effects of PEG oligomer additives enhancing the nucleophilicity of fluoride ions and organic solvent-free systems using poly(HF) salt ionic liquids as well as recyclable mediatory systems for electrochemical fluorination are described. The desulfurizative monofluorination of xanthate and gem-difluorination of benzothioate and dithioacetals are briefly mentioned. Regioselective anodic fluorination of various heterocyclic compounds having a phenylthio group as electroauxiliary and heterocycles containing sulfur and other heteroatoms are also described. In addition, a boryl group is shown to be a good leaving group for anodic fluorination. Moreover, electrochemically α,α-difluorinated phenylsulfides and phenylselenides are illustrated to be useful for photochemical C-H difluoromethylation of aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds. Finally, this Account also highlights highly diastereoselective fluorination of aliphatic heterocyclic and open-chain compounds, as well as new electrolytic fluorination methods using inorganic fluoride salts such as KF and CsF.

Open-Shell Fluorination of Alkyl Bromides: Unexpected Selectivity in a Silyl Radical-Mediated Chain Process.

We disclose a novel radical strategy for the fluorination of alkyl bromides via the merger of silyl radical-mediated halogen-atom abstraction and benzophenone photosensitization. Selectivity for halogen-atom abstraction from alkyl bromides is observed in the presence of an electrophilic fluorinating reagent containing a weak N-F bond despite the predicted favorability for Si-F bond formation. To probe this surprising selectivity, preliminary mechanistic and computational studies were conducted, revealing that a radical chain mechanism is operative in which kinetic selectivity for Si-Br abstraction dominates due to a combination of polar effects and halogen-atom polarizability in the transition state. This transition-metal-free fluorination protocol tolerates a broad range of functional groups, including alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes, which demonstrates the complementary nature of this strategy to existing fluorination technologies. This system has been extended to the generation of gem-difluorinated motifs which are commonly found in medicinal agents and agrochemicals.

Direct electrophilic fluorination of naproxen with NF-reagents

A novel effective protocol has been developed for direct fluorination of naproxen using the electrophilic fluorinating reagents 1-chloromethy1-4-fluoro-l,4-diazoniabicyclo[2.2.2]octane bis(tetrafluoroborate) (Selectfluor™, F-TEDA-BF4) and N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) in MeCN and H2O solvents with the formation of 2-(5-fluoro-6-methoxynaphthalen-2-yl)propionic and 2-(5,5-difluoro-6-oxo-5,6-dihydronaphthalen-2-yl)propionic acids. The reaction of naproxen with an excess of Selectfluor (mol. ratio NF-reagent/naproxen = 2.2) in MeOH gives methyl 2-(5,5-difluoro-6,6-dimethoxy-5,6-dihydronaphthalen-2-yl)propionate as the main product. The mechanistic aspects of the reactions and X-ray data of products are discussed.