Synthesis of 4-fluororesorcinol and 4-trifluoromethylresorcinol

Abstract

Less expensive, safer, and easily scaled-up methods for the synthesis of 4-fluororesorcinol and 4-trifluoromethylresorcinol have been established, including two methods to give the former compound. One involves the reaction of Selectfluor™reagent with 1,3-dimethoxybenzene to give 2,4-dimethoxy-1-fluorobenzene followed by hydrolysis to give 4-fluororesorcinol. The overall yield of this two-step reaction is 54%. In the second case, when Selectfluor reagent is reacted directly with resorcinol, under the best reaction conditions, 4-fluororesorcinol is obtained in 66% yield. It is, however, very difficult to separate the starting material from the mono- and difluororesorcinol products. Consequently, the two-step method is the method of choice to prepare 4-fluororesorcinol. The trifluoromethyl group was incorporated into 2,4-dimethoxy-1-iodobenzene to form 1,3-dimethoxy-4-trifluoromethyl-benzene followed by mild hydrolysis to give 4-trifluoromethylresorcinol. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.