Introducing click chemistry’s newest reaction
Phosphorus fluoride exchange allows chemists to quickly build P–O and P–N linked compounds
The toolbox of click chemistry has a new technique: phosphorous fluoride exchange (PFEx). This reaction enables scientists to easily build oxygen and nitrogen-linked products from a central phosphoru s hub.
Inspired by nature’s penchant for phosphate connections, US-based chemists John Moses of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and two-time Nobel laureate Barry Sharpless of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, replicated their previous innovation of sulf ur fluoride exchange (SuFEx) with phosphorus. ‘Just one step to the left and the world is different, ’ says Sharpless. ‘It worked better than we imagined,’ adds Moses.