Synthesis, structure determination, and (radio-)fluorination of novel functionalized phosphanes suitable for the traceless Staudinger ligation

An elegant and efficient synthesis approach for the preparation of novel benzoate and nicotinate containing phosphanes is presented. This reaction path has a broad substrate scope. Thus, various functionalized phosphanes were obtained in high yields using an esterification procedure under Steglich conditions. A facile blocking of the phosphorus atom with BH₃ was carried out. BH₃ as easily insertable and removable protecting group enables a further derivatization of the benzoate residue. The prepared phosphane derivatives proved to be valuable labeling building blocks for the implementation of a bioorthogonal (radio-)fluorination strategy and were applied for labeling purposes using the traceless Staudinger ligation. For this purpose, a selection of azide-functionalized small organic and bioactive sample molecules was prepared. Furthermore, a mild and selective (radio-)fluorination of these derivatives is demonstrated adopting this bioorthogonal ligation method.