Catalytic Synthesis of Fluoroalkyl Ketones

Fluoroalkyl ketones are a class of structural motifs which are ubiquitous in bioactive molecules, and serve as synthons for diverse value-added fluorine-containing targets. The presence of fluorine significantly alters the lipophilicity and bioactivity of alkyl ketones as well as imposes additional challenges on the synthesis of fluoroalkyl ketones. Traditional methods for the synthesis of fluoroalkyl ketones heavily rely on multiple-step manipulations which require stoichiometric reagents and suffer from low efficiency. Thus, the development of synthesizing fluoroalkyl ketones enabled by catalytic methods is highly valuable yet challenging. This Concept summarizes the recent renaissance in developing catalytic methods for the synthesis of fluoroalkyl ketones with diverse substitution patterns from different fluorine-containing precursors. In addition, further efforts for catalytic method development are also discussed.