Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ASYMFLU (Asymmetric Organocatalytic Fluorination with fluoride salts)
Reporting period: 2018-05-01 to 2020-04-30
The constant rise of fluorine substitution in pharmaceutical drugs therefore requires the development of novel methodologies which employ safe, cost-efficient and readily available fluoride sources, thus avoiding the use of highly toxic and hard-to-handle hydrofluoric acid (HF). This research aimed at the use of one of the most cost effective class of fluorinating reagents, namely alkali metal fluorides, as sources of nucleophilic fluoride for asymmetric catalysis (thus biasing the introduction of fluorine towards only one of two mirror images). The project targets were met and a facile new access to β-fluoroamines, a privileged class of compounds contained in numerous therapeutics and bioactive compounds, was developed. The main challenge with the use of metal fluoride salts in synthesis was their insolubility in organic solvents. By designing a new catalyst capable of solubilizing a low cost fluoride source such as potassium fluoride while simultaneously controlling its reactivity, allowed for the first use of this reagent in asymmetric catalysis. The reaction has a simple set-up, is easily scalable and was successfully applied to the synthesis of numerous fluorinated drugs of well-known pharmaceuticals and bioactive compounds. This research opens new prospects to wider applications with other insoluble salts as reagents in organic synthesis as well as its translation to 18F radiochemistry to access new PET-tracers for imaging.