Micellar-System-Mediated Direct Fluorination of Ketones in Water

A micellar system was developed and applied for direct regioselective fluorination of a variety of cyclic and acyclic ketones to alpha-fluoroketones in water as reaction medium with Selectflour F-TEDA-BF4 as fluorinating reagent. The inexpensive ionic amphiphile sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was found to be all excellent promoter for fluorofunctionalization of hydrophobic ketones without prior activation or Use of acid catalysts.