Activation of the hypervalent fluoroiodane reagent by hydrogen bonding to hexafluoroisopropanol

Org Biomol Chem. 2018 Oct 10;16(39):7170-7173. doi: 10.1039/c8ob02236d.

Abstract

Hexafluoroisopropan-2-ol (HFIP) is an excellent solvent for promoting fluorinations with the hypervalent fluoroiodane reagent 1 and crucially, it removes the need for transition metals or TREAT-HF activators. The fluoroiodane reagent 1 was used in HFIP to monofluorinate 1,3-ketoesters and to fluorocyclise unsaturated carboxylic acids in excellent yields under mild reaction conditions.