Insights for Organofluorine Chemistry, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Organofluorine compounds have become increasingly important in human life. They have been widely used in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and material science due to their improved properties in comparison to their parent molecules, such as high lipophilicity, improved stability, drastic changes in physical properties and enhanced bioactivities. To date, approximately 20–25% of commercial pharmaceuticals and 30% of commercial agrochemicals contain at least one fluorine atom in their molecules. These ratios are steadily increasing. For instance, more than 30% of drugs and 60% of pesticides registered in the past five years are fluorinated organic compounds. However, organofluorine compounds are very scarce in nature. Only 13 naturally occurring organofluorine compounds have been found, and the majority are higher homologues of fluoroacetic acid. Thus, any organofluorine compound used for academic studies or marketed as a pharmaceutical, agrochemical or advanced material has to be synthesized by humans.

In view of the significance of and demands for organofluorine compounds in our lives, chemists have developed many ingenious strategies to introduce the fluorine element into organic compounds. In addition to traditional methods, many versatile fluorine-containing reagents, such as Selectfluor, NFSI, Ruppert–Prakash reagent, Togni reagent, Umenoto reagent, Langlois reagent, Chen’s reagent (MFSDA) and many others, have been developed and applied in the synthesis of organofluorine compounds. The study and application of these fluorine-containing reagents have tremendously pushed forward the progress of fluorine chemistry. Furthermore, fluorine-containing building block strategies are additional protocols to access organofluorine compounds, and many cheap, stable and valuable fluorine-containing building blocks have been used in industry for the synthesis of bioactive organofluorine compounds and advanced materials. In spite of these, more effective and environmental green strategies are still needed, and more functional organofluorine compounds need to be developed.

This Special Issue is designed to gather any research papers on organofluorine chemistry, such as new synthetic strategies for organofluorine compounds; the development of new fluorine-containing pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and materials; and studies on the special properties and bioactivities of organofluorine compounds.

Prof. Dr. Yulai Hu
Guest Editor

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