Gram-Scale Asymmetric Synthesis of Fluorinated Amino Acids Using a Chiral Nickel(II) Complex

Fluorinated amino acids play an important role in the field of peptide and protein engineering. Although numerous syntheses have been published in recent decades, strategies that allow routine access to fluorinated amino acids on a gram-scale have been poorly described. Furthermore, the described pathways that gain fluorinated amino acids are based on different synthetic strategies, making a uniform approach that uses similar starting materials highly beneficial. Chiral Ni(II) complexes were introduced as powerful tools in the synthesis of noncanonical amino acids. In this work, we present a strategy for the synthesis of a diverse range of fluorinated amino acids based on the corresponding Ni(II) complex from which the products can be obtained in enantiopure form (99% ee) on a gram-scale. In addition, we describe an optimized procedure for the synthesis of alkyl iodide building blocks that are required for the alkylation reactions with the corresponding Ni(II) complex. Finally, we characterized the synthesized fluorinated amino acids with regard to their hydrophobicity and alpha-helix propensity.