An Issue of Synthesis Strategy: To Make or Rather to Transform Organofluorine Compounds

摘要

Virtually all organofluorine compounds are man-made. This fact immediately brings up the critical question of how and at what moment to integrate fluorine into the carbon backbone. One may import the featured halogen from an inorganic source which can be either a nucleophilic (e.g., hydrogen fluoride) or an electrophilic reagent (e.g., perchloryl fluoride). Alternatively, one may deliver the required number of fluorine atoms attached to a C_1 species (e.g., as a trifluoromethyl group). Finally, one may start from a commercial compound which carries the right number of fluorine atoms at the right places and which just needs to be fitted with the lacking functionality. The latter approach is particularly appealing if diversity-oriented, as opposed to target-oriented, synthesis is the objective.