Fluorinated heterocyclic compounds. A photochemical approach to a synthesis of fluorinated quinazolin-4-ones

An efficient and generalized photochemical methodology for the preparation of fluorinated quinazolin-4-ones is described. Depending on the starting substrate, quinazolin-4-ones bearing a perfluoroalkyl- or perfluoroaryl-substituent in position 2 or fluorine atoms on any positions of the benzo-fused moiety can easily be obtained. 5-Aryl-3-perfluoroalkylpentafluorophenyl- or 5-polyfluoroaryl-3-phenyl(methyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazoles, respectively, can be considered as ideal precursors that can be transformed into the target quinazolin-4-ones by irradiation in the presence of triethylamine (TEA) (at lambda = 313 nm) or pyrene (at X = 365 nm) in dry methanol or acetonitrile as solvent. Some mechanistic considerations confirm the involvement of a photoinduced electron transfer process.