Decarboxylative Fluorination of 2-Pyridylacetates.

Syntheses of substituted pyridines and fluorinated compounds, which are often pharmaceutical targets, are important objectives in organic chemistry. Herein, we found that decarboxylative fluorination of lithium 2-pyridylacetates occur under catalyst-free conditions. The phenomenon can be applied to one-pot transformation of substituted methyl 2-pyridylacetate to 2-(fluoroalkyl)pyridine by decarboxylative fluorination of the intermediate lithium 2-pyridylacetate. This method was also applied to the syntheses of 2-(difluoroalkyl)pyridines.