Acyclic allylic monofluorides were prepared by electrophilic fluorination of branched (E)-allylsilanes with Selectfluor. These reactions proceeded with efficient transfer of chirality from the silylated to the fluorinated stereocentre. Upon double fluorination, an unsymmetrical ethyl syn-2,5-difluoroalk-3-enoic ester was prepared, the silyl group acting as an anti stereodirecting group for the two C-F bond forming events.Page 1 of (page number not for citation purposes)
FindingsAsymmetric C-F bond formation continues to challenge chemists, inspiring the development of increasingly effective protocols for stereocontrolled fluorination. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Studies from our laboratory illustrated that allylsilanes undergo electrophilic fluorination to afford allylic fluorides with clean transposition of the double bond. Using chiral cyclic allylsilanes, these experiments have culminated in efficient methods for the asymmetric synthesis of monofluorinated cyclitols or vitamin D3 analogues. [12][13][14][15] The key step of these syntheses is a highly efficient diastereoselective fluorodesilylation. We encountered more difficulties with the fluorination of acyclic allylsilanes A constructed by metathetic coupling of allyltrimethysilane with chiral olefinic partners (eq. 1, Scheme 1). Although high yielding, the electrophilic fluorination of these substrates suffered from a poor level of diastereocontrol, thereby limiting the synthetic value of these reactions. [16,17] The absence of a silylated stereogenic centre is likely to be responsible for the poor stereocontrol observed upon fluorination of these substrates. We envisaged that the fluorination of (E)-allylsilanes B, featuring a silylated stereogenic centre, might be a superior transformation to control the configuration of the emerging fluorine-bearing centre (eq. 2, Scheme 1). This working hypothesis is supported by the well-accepted model, which accounts for the observed transfer of chirality when reacting allylsilanes B with electrophiles other than fluorine. [18][19][20][21] Chiral allylsilanes B are known to act as useful carbon nucleophile equivalents in highly stereoselective condensation reactions with a large range of electrophiles leading to the construction of C-C, C-O, C-N or C-S bonds. [22][23][24][25][26][27] Herein, we report our investigation into the fluorination of (E)-allylsilanes of general structure B. A highly efficient and stereoselective synthesis of alkenes featuring bis-allylic stereocentres, one of them being fluorinated, emerged from this study. Significantly, alkenes flanked by two allylic fluorinated stereogenic centres are also accessible upon double electrophilic fluorination of (E)-allylsilanes substituted with an ester group.The synthesis of the allylsilanes (±)-1a-i featuring an ester or alcohol group was carried out according to the procedure reported by Panek and co-workers.[30] See Supporting Information File 1 for full experimental data. The fluorinations were carried out at room temperature in CH 3...