N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Catalyzed Enantioselective α‐Fluorination of Aliphatic Aldehydes and α‐Chloro Aldehydes: Synthesis of α‐Fluoro Esters, Amides, and Thioesters

Abstract

The asymmetric fluorination of azolium enolates that are generated from readily available simple aliphatic aldehydes or α-chloro aldehydes and N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) is described. The process significantly expands the synthetic utility of NHC-catalyzed fluorination and provides facile access to a wide range of α-fluoro esters, amides, and thioesters with excellent enantioselectivity. Pyrazole was identified as an excellent acyl transfer reagent for catalytic amide formation.