Fluorinated Radicals in Divergent Synthesis via Photoredox Catalysis

Fluorine is an essential element in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and material sciences, significantly enhancing the bioactivity, metabolic stability, and physicochemical properties of organic molecules. In medicinal chemistry, nearly 20% of marketed drugs contain at least one fluorine atom within their core structure. Despite its widespread importance, naturally occurring organofluorine compounds are exceedingly rare, necessitating the development of productive synthetic strategies for fluorine incorporation. The majority of fluorination protocols at the industrial level rely on reagents made from highly reactive and hazardous hydrogen fluoride (HF) or elemental fluorine (F₂), which present substantial challenges in handling and safety at the laboratory scale. Moreover, considerations of cost, availability, and synthetic performance have led to a renewed interest in utilizing readily accessible, bulk-manufactured compounds such as fluorinated acids and anhydrides. The activation of these redox-active reagents presents a promising avenue to achieve selective, efficient, and sustainable fluoroalkylation reactions.