We reported the synthesis of tetrasubstituted alpha-fluoroenones from tetrasubstituted gem-bromo-fluoroolefins in good yields. These compounds are scarcely studied in the literature, due to difficulty of synthesis, whereas they could serve as intermediates in the synthesis of biological relevant molecules and could also be envisioned to design new constrained peptidomimetics. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Synthesis of 1-bromo-1-fluoroolefins was achieved in good yields via a Wittig reaction promoted by diethylzinc, even with nonactivated aldehydes and ketones as starting materials.