A novel selective and substrate-dependent synthetic protocol has been developed towards the synthesis of various fluorine-containing, highly functionalized cycloalkane derivatives. The method involves the stereoselective epoxidation of some unsaturated cyclic β-amino acid derivatives as model compounds, followed by a regioselective fluoride opening of oxiranes under various conditions with Deoxofluor and XtalFluor-E reagents, thereby offering an insight into this new epoxide opening methodology with fluoride.
Keywords: amino acids; fluorination; oxirane; regioselectivity; stereoselectivity.