Nucleophilic fluorination reactions starting from aqueous fluoride ion solutions.

The sulfonium borane 2(+) reacts with fluoride anions in MeOH/H(2)O mixtures to afford the zwitterionic fluoroborate 2-F as an easily isolable nonhygroscopic solid. In dry acetonitrile, 2-F reacts with PhS(-) to afford the anionic fluoroborate 1-F(-). The latter is very labile and acts as a nucleophilic fluorination reagent toward a variety of substrates including alkylhalides and electron-deficient aromatic compounds. This approach may become broadly applicable to nucleophilic fluorination procedures that involve wet fluoride sources.