Modern Synthetic Methods for Fluorine‐Substituted Target Molecules

Fluorine has come to be recognized as a key element in materials science: in heat‐transfer agents, liquid crystals, dyes, surfactants, plastics, elastomers, membranes, and other materials. Furthermore, many fluorine‐containing biologically active agents are finding applications as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Progress in synthetic fluorine chemistry has been critical to the development of these fields and has led to the invention of many novel fluorinated molecules as future drugs and materials. As a result of the electronic effects of fluorine substituents, fluorinated substrates and reagents often exhibit unusual and unique chemical properties, which often make them incompatible with established synthetic methods. Thus, the problem of how to control the unusual properties of compounds with fluorine substituents deserves much attention, so as to promote the design of facile, efficient, and environmentally benign methods for the synthesis of valuable organofluorine targets.     

Highly Stereoselective Gold‐Catalyzed Coupling of Diazo Reagents and Fluorinated Enol Silyl Ethers to Tetrasubstituted Alkenes

We report a highly stereoselective synthesis of all‐carbon or fluorinated tetrasubstituted alkenes from diazo reagents and fluorinated enol silyl ethers, using C−F bond as a synthetic handle. Cationic Au^I catalysis plays a key role in this reaction. Remarkable fluorine effects on the reactivity and selectivity was also observed.     

Simple Synthesis of Fluorinated Graphene: Thermal Exfoliation of Fluorographite

Fluorinated graphene can be prepared directly by thermal exfoliation of fluorographite. The exfoliation was performed in a dynamic nitrogen atmosphere at various temperatures and the exfoliation products were analysed in detail by GC‐MS. The structure and properties of all prepared fluorinated graphenes with various contents of fluorine were characterized by a number of analytical techniques. The results show both the dependence of fluorine concentration on exfoliation temperature and the suitability of this method for the synthesis of graphene with controlled concentration of fluorine. The high‐temperature exfoliated fluorographite exhibits a high heterogeneous electron transfer rate and excellent catalytic properties towards the oxygen reduction reaction. These synthetic procedures can open a simple way for the synthesis of fluorinated graphene‐based devices with tailored properties.     

含氟内酯化合物的合成方法研究进展

内酯化合物广泛存在于天然产物和具有生理活性的物质中, 因此, 内酯化合物的合成一直是人们非常关心的一个研究领域, 不仅作为天然产物的重要合成砌块, 也用来合成一些精细化工产品和医药中间体. 将氟原子或含氟基团引入到内酯化合物分子中, 可使其生理活性发生改变. 就含氟内酯化合物合成方法的研究进展进行了综述.     

Reversible Sodium Metal Electrodes: Is Fluorine an Essential Interphasial Component?

Alkaline metals are an ideal negative electrode for rechargeable batteries. Forming a fluorine‐rich interphase by a fluorinated electrolyte is recognized as key to utilizing lithium metal electrodes, and the same strategy is being applied to sodium metal electrodes. However, their reversible plating/stripping reactions have yet to be achieved. Herein, we report a contrary concept of fluorine‐free electrolytes for sodium metal batteries. A sodium tetraphenylborate/monoglyme electrolyte enables reversible sodium plating/stripping at an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.85 % over 300 cycles. Importantly, the interphase is composed mainly of carbon, oxygen, and sodium elements with a negligible presence of fluorine, but it has both high stability and extremely low resistance. This work suggests a new direction for stabilizing sodium metal electrodes via fluorine‐free interphases.     

Ferrocenes with perfluorinated side chains and ferrocenophanes with fluorinated handles

Trifluorovinyl groups are introduced onto the cyclopentadienyl ligands of ferrocene at the 1-, 1,1'-, and 1,2-positions by Negishi-type and Stille-type coupling reactions of trifluorovinylzinc chloride and tri-n-butyltrifluorovinyl stannane with several iodoferrocenes. Modification of the trifluorovinyl group by nucleophilic substitution and [2+2] cycloaddition make them versatile building blocks for synthetic transformations. 1,1'-Bis(trifluorovinyl) ferrocene reacts upon contact with silica or oxidizing agents and in the presence of a suitable nucleophile through a redox autocatalytic mechanism to afford ferrocenophanes with fluorinated handles. C(F)(H) and C(F)(OMe) moieties in α-positions allowed further modifications to be performed by nucleophilic substitution of the fluorine atoms. A series of ferrocenes with fluorinated side chains and ferrocenophanes with fluorinated handles were isolated and characterized. Several molecular structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The influence of the fluorine substituents on the redox properties of the iron center were studied by cyclic voltammetry.     

Precise Synthesis of Ultra‐High‐Molecular‐Weight Fluoropolymers Enabled by Chain‐Transfer‐Agent Differentiation under Visible‐Light Irradiation

Ultra‐high‐molecular‐weight (UHMW) polymers display outstanding properties and hold potential for wide applications. However, their precise synthesis remains challenging. Herein, we developed a novel reversible‐deactivation radical polymerization based on the strong and selective fluorine–fluorine interaction, allowing chain‐transfer agents to spontaneously differentiate into two groups that take charge of the chain growth and reversible deactivation of the growing chains, respectively. This method enables dramatically improved livingness of propagation, providing UHMW polymers with a surprisingly narrow molecular weight distribution (?≈1.1) from a variety of fluorinated (meth)acrylates and acrylamide at quantitative conversions under visible‐light irradiation. In situ chain‐end extensions from UHMW polymers facilitated the synthesis of well‐defined block copolymers, revealing the excellent chain‐end fidelity achieved by this method.     

Systematic Studies on the Effect of Fluorine Atoms in Fluorinated Tolanes on Their Photophysical Properties

In this study, we synthesized a series of fluorinated and non-fluorinated tolanes, in which one or more fluorine atoms were systematically introduced into one aromatic ring of a tolane scaffold, and systematically evaluated their photophysical properties. All the tolanes with or without fluorine substituents were found to have poor photoluminescence (PL) in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solutions. On the other hand, in the crystalline state, non-fluorinated and fluorinated tolanes with one or four fluorine atoms were less emissive, whereas fluorinated tolanes with three or five fluorine atoms exhibited high PL efficiencies (Ф_PL) up to 0.51. X-ray crystallographic analyses of the emissive fluorinated tolanes revealed that the position of the fluorine substituent played a key role in achieving a high Ф_PL. Fluorine substituents at the ortho (2/6) and para (4) positions led to tight and rigid packing due to plural π–π stacking and/or hydrogen bonding interactions, resulting in enhanced Ф_PL caused by the suppression of non-radiative deactivation. Additionally, fluorinated tolanes with three fluorine atoms exhibited notable aggregation-induced PL emission enhancement in THF/water mixed solvents. This demonstrates that the PL characteristics of small PL materials can be tuned depending on the usage requirements.     

Regioselective Hydroxylation of C12–C15 Fatty Acids with Fluorinated Substituents by Cytochrome P450 BM3

We demonstrate herein that wild‐type cytochrome P450 BM3 can recognize non‐natural substrates, such as fluorinated C₁₂–C₁₅ chain‐length fatty acids, and show better catalysis for their efficient conversion. Although the binding affinities for fluorinated substrates in the P450 BM3 pocket are marginally lower than those for non‐fluorinated substrates, spin‐shift measurements suggest that fluoro substituents at the ω‐position can facilitate rearrangement of the dynamic structure of the bulk‐water network within the hydrophobic pocket through a micro desolvation process to expel the water ligand of the heme iron that is present in the resting state. A lowering of the Michaelis–Menten constant (K_m), however, indicates that fluorinated fatty acids are indeed better substrates compared with their non‐fluorinated counterparts. An enhancement of the turnover frequencies (k_cat) for electron transfer from NADPH to the heme iron and for C? H bond oxidation by compound I (Cpd I) to yield the product suggests that the activation energies associated with going from the enzyme–substrate (ES state) to the corresponding transition state (ES^≠ state) are significantly lowered for both steps in the case of the fluorinated substrates. Delicate control of the regioselectivity by the fluorinated terminal methyl groups of the C₁₂–C₁₅ fatty acids has been noted. Despite the fact that residues Arg47/Tyr51/Ser72 exert significant control over the hydroxylation of the subterminal carbon atoms toward the hydrocarbon tail, the fluorine substituent(s) at the ω‐position affects the regioselective hydroxylation. For substrate hydroxylation, we have found that fluorinated lauric acids probably give a better structural fit for the heme pocket than fluorinated pentadecanoic acid, even though pentadecanoic acid is by far the best substrate among the reported fatty acids. Interestingly, 12‐fluorododecanoic acid, with only one fluorine atom at the terminal methyl group, exhibits a comparable turnover frequency to that of pentadecanoic acid. Thus, fluorination of the terminal methyl group introduces additional interactions of the substrate within the hydrophobic pocket, which influence the electron transfers for both dioxygen activation and the controlled oxidation of aliphatics mediated by high‐valent oxoferryl species.     

Synthesis and characterization of a new acceptor (n‐type) fluorinated and terminal‐functionalized polythiophene

Donor‐ or acceptor‐substituted polythiophenes have many potential applications in optoelectronics. Fluorinated polythiophenes are particularly attractive because of the presence of fluorine, which can withdraw electrons and also improve polymer chemical stability. Because of the promising future of these polymers, there has been much interest in identifying favorable synthetic routes to new fluorinated monomers and polymers. In this study, the monomer had an electron‐withdrawing fluorinated ester and was derived from 3‐thiophene carboxylic acid and 2,2,3,3,4,4,4‐heptafluoro‐1‐butanol. The synthesis of an n‐type fluorinated and terminal‐functionalized polythiophene was accomplished with the Ullmann coupling reaction. A polymer soluble in tetrahydrofuran was obtained with a molecular weight of approximately 15,000 g/mol. In solution, it exhibited a band gap of 2.4 eV, and the photoluminescent excitation and emission maxima were 370 nm and 555 nm, respectively. All peaks were bathochromically shifted when they were measured in the solid state. The glass‐transition and decomposition (in air) temperatures were 129 and 493 °C, respectively. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 4280–4287, 2005     

Synthesis of Fluorinated and Nonfluorinated Graphene Quantum Dots through a New Top‐Down Strategy for Long‐Time Cellular Imaging

Herein, a new strategy has been developed through combining a microwave‐assisted technique with hydrothermal treatment to reduce graphene waste and improve production yield of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) prepared by top‐down methods. By using fluorinated graphene oxide (FGO) as a raw material, fluorinated GQDs and nonfluorinated GQDs can be synthesized. Additionally, in the fluorinated GQDs, the protective shell supplied by fluorine improves the pH stability of photoluminescence and the strong electron‐withdrawing group, ?F, reduces the π‐ electron density of the aromatic structure; thus inhibiting reactivity toward singlet oxygen produced during irradiation and improving the photostability. Therefore, the as‐prepared fluorinated GQDs with excellent photo‐ and pH stability are suitable for long‐term cellular imaging.     

Recent Advances in the One‐Step Synthesis of Distally Fluorinated Ketones

Fluorinated ketones are intriguing compounds in synthetic chemistry and life science‐related fields. The development of efficient methodologies to obtain these compounds is of significant importance and has therefore attracted considerable attention. This Minireview highlights recent progress made in the synthesis of fluorine‐containing ketones, with an emphasis on those methods in which the construction of carbonyl groups is synergetic with distal (β‐, γ‐, δ‐, etc.) incorporation of fluorine atoms or fluorinated groups.     

Decorating Tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) with Fluorinated Phenyls through Sulfur Bridges: Facile Synthesis,Properties, and Aggregation through Fluorine Interactions

Tetrathiafulvalene derivatives ( TTF1 – TTF9 ) bearing fluorinated phenyl groups attached through the sulfur bridges have been synthesized by employing a copper‐mediated C–S coupling reaction of C₆H_5?xF_xI (x=1, 2, 5) and a zinc‐thiolate complex, (TBA)₂[Zn(DMIT)₂] (TBA=tetrabutyl ammonium, DMIT=1,3‐dithiole‐2‐thione‐4,5‐dithiolate), as the key step. Particularly, the selective synthesis of C₆F₅‐substituted ( TTF8 ) and C₆F₄‐fused ( TTF9 ) TTFs from C₆F₅I is disclosed. The physicochemical properties and crystal structures of these TTFs are fully investigated by UV/Vis absorption spectra, cyclic voltammetry, molecular orbital calculation, and single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction. The exchange of hydrogen versus fluorine on the peripheral phenyl groups show a notable influence on both the electronic and crystallographic natures of the resulting TTFs: 1) lowering both the HOMO and the LUMO energy levels, 2) modulating the electrochemical properties by regioselective and/or the degree of fluorination, 3) enhancing the driving forces of stacking by multiple fluorine interactions (F???S, C?F???π/π_F, C?F???F?C, and C?F???H). This work indicates that the decoration with fluorinated phenyls holds promise to produce functional TTFs with novel electronic and aggregation features.     

Fluorine–proton correlation from isolated trifluoromethyl groups using unresolved J‐couplings

Fluorine‐containing compounds are rare in biological systems, so fluorine NMR spectroscopy can selectively detect and quantify fluorinated xenobiotics in crude biological extracts. The high sensitivity of fluorine NMR allows the detection of compounds containing isolated trifluoromethyl groups at nanogramme levels. However, it only provides limited structural information about trifluoromethyl‐containing compounds owing to the difficulty of interpreting fluorine chemical shifts and the low sensitivity of HOESY experiments used to correlate fluorine nuclei with protons in the same compound. This paper demonstrates that long‐range fluorine–proton J‐couplings can be used to correlate isolated trifluoromethyl groups with nearby protons with significantly higher sensitivity than HOESY. Fluorine‐observe fluorine–proton HMQC can even give correlations when the fluorine–proton J‐couplings are less than the observed fluorine resonance linewidth, so it provides a useful alternative source of structural information about fluorinated xenobiotics. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nucleophile‐Directed Stereocontrol Over Glycosylations Using Geminal‐Difluorinated Nucleophiles

The glycosylation reaction is the key transformation in oligosaccharide synthesis, but it is still difficult to control in many cases. Stereocontrol during cis‐glycosidic linkage formation relies almost exclusively on tuning the glycosylating agent or the reaction conditions. Herein, we use nucleophile‐directed stereocontrol to manipulate the stereoselectivity of glycosylation reactions. Placing two fluorine atoms in close proximity to the hydroxy group of an aliphatic amino alcohol lowers the oxygen nucleophilicity and reverses the stereoselectivity of glycosylations to preferentially form the desired cis‐glycosides with a broad set of substrates. This concept was applied to the design of a cis‐selective linker for automated glycan assembly. Fluorination of an amino alcohol linker does not impair glycan immobilization and lectin binding as illustrated by glycan microarray experiments. These fluorinated linkers enable the facile generation of α‐terminating synthetic glycans for the formation of glycoconjugates.     

Modern synthetic methods for fluorine-substituted target molecules

Fluorine has come to be recognized as a key element in materials science: in heat-transfer agents, liquid crystals, dyes, surfactants, plastics, elastomers, membranes, and other materials. Furthermore, many fluorine-containing biologically active agents are finding applications as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Progress in synthetic fluorine chemistry has been critical to the development of these fields and has led to the invention of many novel fluorinated molecules as future drugs and materials. As a result of the electronic effects of fluorine substituents, fluorinated substrates and reagents often exhibit unusual and unique chemical properties, which often make them incompatible with established synthetic methods. Thus, the problem of how to control the unusual properties of compounds with fluorine substituents deserves much attention, so as to promote the design of facile, efficient, and environmentally benign methods for the synthesis of valuable organofluorine targets.     

Synthesis of fluorine‐containing star‐shaped poly(vinyl ether)s via arm‐linking reactions in living cationic polymerization

Various types of fluorine‐containing star‐shaped poly(vinyl ether)s were successfully synthesized by crosslinking reactions of living polymers based on living cationic polymerization. Star polymers with fluorinated arm chains were prepared by the reaction between a divinyl ether and living poly(vinyl ether)s with fluorine groups (C₄F₉, C₆F₁₃, and C₈F₁₇) at the side chain using cationogen/Et_1.5AlCl_1.5 in a fluorinated solvent (dichloropentafluoropropanes), giving star‐shaped fluorinated polymers in high yields with a relatively narrow molecular weight distribution. The concentration of living polymers for the crosslinking reaction and the molar feed ratio of a bifunctional vinyl ether to living polymers affected the yield and molecular weight of the star polymers. Star polymers with block arms were prepared by a linking reaction of living block copolymers of a fluorinated segment and a nonfluorinated segment. Heteroarm star‐shaped polymers containing two‐ or three‐arm species were synthesized using a mixture of different living polymer species for the reaction with a bifunctional vinyl ether. The obtained polymers underwent temperature‐induced solubility transitions in various organic solvents, and their concentrated solutions underwent sol–gel transitions, based on the solubility transition of a thermoresponsive fluorinated segment. Furthermore, a slight amount of fluorine groups were shown to be effective for physical gelation when those were located at the arm ends of a star polymer. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Decomposition of Fluorinated Graphene under Heat Treatment

Fluorination modifies the electronic properties of graphene, and thus it can be used to provide material with on‐demand properties. However, the thermal stability of fluorinated graphene is crucial for any application in electronic devices. Herein, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), temperature‐programmed desorption (TPD), and Raman spectroscopy were used to address the impact of the thermal treatment on fluorinated graphene. The annealing, at up to 700 K, caused gradual loss of fluorine and carbon, as was demonstrated by XPS. This loss was associated with broad desorption of CO and HF species, as monitored by TPD. The minor single desorption peak of CF species at 670 K is suggested to rationalize defect formation in the fluorinated graphene layer during the heating. However, fluorine removal from graphene was not complete, as some fraction of strongly bonded fluorine can persist despite heating to 1000 K. The role of intercalated H₂O and OH species in the defluorination process is emphasised.     

Position‐Dependent Effects of Fluorinated Amino Acids on the Hydrophobic Core Formation of a Heterodimeric Coiled Coil

Systematic model investigations of the molecular interactions of fluorinated amino acids within native protein environments substantially improve our understanding of the unique properties of these building blocks. A rationally designed heterodimeric coiled coil peptide (VPE/VPK) and nine variants containing amino acids with variable fluorine content in either position a16 or d19 within the hydrophobic core were synthesized and used to evaluate the impact of fluorinated amino acid substitutions within different hydrophobic protein microenvironments. The structural and thermodynamic stability of the dimers were examined by applying both experimental (CD spectroscopy, FRET, and analytical ultracentrifugation) and theoretical (MD simulations and MM‐PBSA free energy calculations) methods. The coiled coil environment imposes position‐dependent conformations onto the fluorinated side chains and thus affects their packing and relative orientation towards their native interaction partners. We find evidence that such packing effects exert a significant influence on the contribution of fluorine‐induced polarity to coiled coil folding.     

Molecular recognition of diketide substrates by a β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein synthase domain within a bimodular polyketide synthase

Background: Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are large multifunctional proteins that catalyze the biosynthesis of structurally complex bioactive products. The modular organization of PKSs has allowed the application of a combinatorial approach to the synthesis of novel polyketides via the manipulation of these biocatalysts at the genetic level. The inherent specificity of PKSs for their natural substrates, however, may place limits on the spectrum of molecular diversity that can be achieved in polyketide products. With the aim of further understanding PKS specificity, as a route to exploiting PKSs in combinatorial synthesis, we chose to examine the substrate specificity of a single intact domain within a bimodular PKS to investigate its capacity to utilize unnatural substrates.Results: We used a blocked mutant of a bimodular PKS in which formation of the triketide product could occur only via uptake and processing of a synthetic diketide intermediate. By introducing systematic changes in the native diketide structure, by means of the synthesis of unnatural diketide analogs, we have shown that the ketosynthase domain of module 2 (KS2 domain) in 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase (DEBS) tolerates a broad range of variations in substrate structure, but it strongly discriminates against some others.Conclusions: Defining the boundaries of substrate recognition within PKS domains is crucial to the rationally engineered biosynthesis of novel polyketide products, many of which could be prepared only with great difficulty, if at all, by direct chemical synthesis or semi-synthesis. Our results suggest that the KS2 domain of DEBS1 has a relatively relaxed specificity that can be exploited for the design and synthesis of medicinally important polyketide products.