Silver-Mediated Decarboxylative Fluorination of Paraconic Acids: A Direct Entry to β-Fluorinated γ-Butyrolactones

The silver(I)-mediated decarboxylative fluorination of paraconic acids using Selectfluor (R) as a fluorine source is reported. Readily available paraconic acids undergo decarboxylative fluorination with Selectfluor (R) mediated by AgNO3 to give the corresponding beta-fluorinated gamma-butyrolactones in moderate to good yields. This approach serves as a direct and site-selective strategy for the introduction of a fluorine atom at the beta position of gamma-butyrolactone cores. The fluorinated products are synthetically useful scaffolds for organic synthesis.