3-Bromo-2-fluoropropene (4) is prepared in a new three-step synthesis from ammonium α -fluoroacrylate (1) in 31% overall yield. Glycine and alanine ester imines are efficiently alkylated by 4 to give, after deprotection, 2-amino-4-fluoropent-4-enoic acid (9) in 63% overall yield, and the α -methylated derivative 13 in 26% overall yield, respectively. Preliminary results indicate that 4 is potentially a new α -carbonyl cation equivalent. Key words: alkylation, amino acid ester imines, β -fluoroallyl bromide, 2-amino-4-fluoropent-4-enoic acid, α -carbonyl cation equivalentThe interest in partially fluorinated organic compounds has grown continuously over the last few years. 1 Nevertheless, the synthesis of highly functionalized molecules containing a limited number of fluorine atoms still remains a significant challenge to synthetic organic chemists.Recently, we reported the syntheses of racemic 2 and optically active 3 γ -and δ -fluoro-α -amino acids using easily accessible fluorinated building blocks. Glycine ester imines have been alkylated with 1-bromo-2-fluoroalkanes 4 in good yields, in spite of the deactivating influence of the fluorine substituent in β -position to the reaction center. 5 We then became interested in the application of 3-bromo-2 -fluoropropene (4) , which should be a more reactive alkylating reagent compared to the saturated β -fluorinated alkyl bromides.Until now β -fluoroallylic compounds have been infrequently used as building blocks. Only a few C-C bond formation reactions of these compounds have been described in the literature. 6 For example, one such compound has been used for the alkylation of Schöllkopf's bislactim ether. 6, 7 However, they have been already shown to participate well in substitution reactions with non-carbon nucleophiles 6 and esters of β -fluoroallylic alcohols have also been used for hetero-Cope rearrangements. 8 3-Bromo-2-fluoropropene (4) , previously prepared in a three-step synthesis from methyl vinyl ether in low overall yield, has been used for O -alkylation by Schlosser et al. 9 We report here a more efficient preparation of 4 and its use for C -alkylation of amino acid ester imines.Attempts to prepare 3-bromo-2-fluoropropene (4) by bromofluorination of allylic bromide followed by dehydrobromination have been thwarted by lack of regioselectivity in the addition step. 10, 11 However, we found that 3-bromo-2-fluoropropene (4) could be efficiently obtained in three steps via 2-fluoroallylic alcohol 3 starting with ammonium α -fluoroacrylate (1) 12 (Scheme 1 ) . The direct reduction of 1 with LiAlH 4 could not be accomplished. However, compound 3 could be synthesized by treatment of 1 with SOCl 2 , followed by reduction of the α -fluoroacrylic acid chloride with LiAlH 4 in diethyl ether at -20 ˚C. Although the reduction step was nearly quantitative, the overall yield of 3 was only 37% in this sequence. The most convenient synthesis of 3 involved the reduction of the benzyl ester 2 with LiAlH 4 in diethyl ether. The ester 2 was prepared under mild conditions by ...

The synthesis of cis-N-benzyl-3-methylamino-4-methylpiperidine(5) via hydroboration of tetrahydropyridine 3 followed by oxidation and reductive amination was optimized and scaled up to produce 10-kg quantities of product. Three routes to 3 were identified, and the reduction of pyridinium salt 7 was selected as the most preferable to run on-scale. The hydroboration and oxidative workup were carefully studied to optimize throughput on that transformation, as was the reductive amination.

Several routes to the enantiomers of fluoronorepinephrines (1) and fluoroepinephrines (2) were explored. A catalytic enantioselective oxazaborolidine reduction and a chiral (salen)Ti(IV) catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of silyl cyanohydrins proved efficacious in the key stereo-defining steps of two respective routes. Binding studies of the catecholamines with alpha(1)-, alpha(2)-, beta(1)-, and beta(2)-adrenergic receptors were examined. The assays confirmed that fluorine substitution had marked effects on the affinity of (R)-norepinephrine and (R)-epinephrine for adrenergic receptors, depending on the position of substitution. Thus, a fluoro substituent at the 2-position of (R)-norepinephrine and (R)-epinephrine reduced activity at both alpha(1)- and alpha(2)-receptors and enhanced activity at beta(1)- and beta(2)-receptors, while fluorination at the 6-position reduced activity at the beta(1)- and beta(2)-receptors. The effects of fluorine substitution on the S-isomers were less predictable.

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