Photoredox Activation of SF6 for Fluorination.

We report the first practical use of SF6 as a fluorinating reagent in organic synthesis. Photoredox catalysis enables the in situ conversion of SF6 , an inert gas, into an active fluorinating species by using visible light. Under these conditions, deoxyfluorination of allylic alcohols is effected with high chemoselectivity and is tolerant of a wide range of functional groups. Application of the methodology in a continuous-flow setup achieves comparable yields to those obtained with a batch setup, while providing drastically increased material throughput of valuable allylic fluoride products.