Issue 46, 2018

A quantitative reactivity scale for electrophilic fluorinating reagents

Abstract

Electrophilic N–F fluorination agents underpin the introduction of fluorine in aliphatic systems across drug and academic research. The choice of N–F reagent is currently determined through empirical experimentation in the absence of quantitative values for electrophilicities. Here we report an experimentally-determined kinetic reactivity scale for ten N–F fluorinating reagents, including Selectfluor™, NFSI, Synfluor™ and several N-fluoropyridinium salts, in CH3CN. The reactivity scale, which covers eight orders of magnitude, employs para-substituted 1,3-diaryl-1,3-dicarbonyl derivatives to measure relative and absolute rate constants. The para-substituted 1,3-diaryl-1,3-dicarbonyl scaffold delivers a convenient, sensitive spectrophotometric reporter of reactivity that also led to the discovery of a unique form of tautomeric polymorphism.

Graphical abstract: A quantitative reactivity scale for electrophilic fluorinating reagents

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
13 Aug. 2018
Accepted
13 Sept. 2018
First published
14 Sept. 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 8692-8702

A quantitative reactivity scale for electrophilic fluorinating reagents

N. Rozatian, I. W. Ashworth, G. Sandford and D. R. W. Hodgson, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 8692 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC03596B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements