Epoxidation of alkenes using HOF•MeCN by a continuous flow process

Continuous flow methodology is described which allows the in situ generation of the highly effective oxidising agent HOF center dot MeCN from fluorine and wet acetonitrile and immediate reaction with alkenes to afford epoxides in high yield. The HOF center dot MeCN continuous flow oxidising system provides an environmentally benign process that is suitable for large scale synthesis and is atom efficient, because the only by-product is hydrogen fluoride which, in principle, could be recycled to produce fluorine by electrolysis. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved