A Practical Synthesis of α-Fluoroketones in Aqueous Media by Decarboxylative Fluorination of β-Ketoacids

A practical and novel process for the decarboxylative fluorination of β‐ketoacids in water in the presence of phase transfer catalyst has been developed, affording a series of α‐fluoroketones in good to excellent yields. Furthermore, a preliminary investigation for the catalytic asymmetric transformation was performed and a proposed mechanistic pathway for this catalytic process was proposed.