Electrochemical Reductive Defluoro-functionalisation

Fluorinated organic molecules improve the bioavailability and potency of bio-active compounds. Current methods to install fluorine selectively into compounds can be problematic, as harsh conditions or wasteful reagents are commonly employed. Thus, the development of new methods that are efficient and selective is very important, and of great interest to academic and industrial research. We are interested in employing electrochemistry as a tool to transform readily available fluorinated moieties into more complex fluorinated motifs in a scalable and sustainable fashion. Our objectives are to
1) Develop reaction conditions for the electrochemical defluorination
2) Explore the substrate scope of the process, including on complex bioactive molecules
3) Scale-up the optimised conditions in a flow cell set-up