Mechanism of electrophilic fluorination of aromatic compounds with NF-reagents

Kinetic isotope effects H/D in electrophilic fluorination of aromatic compounds with NF-reagents were investigated. The small values of k _H/k _D (0.86–1.00) are in agreement with the polar reaction mechanism where the Wheland complex decomposition is not the limiting stage. The fluorination of 1,3,5-trideuterobenzene was established by ¹H and ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy to occur with a 1,2-migration of a hydrogen (deuterium) atom. The analysis of Brown-Stock relationship demonstrated that the activity of NF-reagents exceeded that of many known electrophilic systems including halogenation, but it was essentially less than the activity of elemental fluorine.