Synthetic and biological applications of fluorous reagents as phase tags

The search for new and better techniques for the purification of organic compounds has made the recent emergence of fluorous chemistry in the field of organic synthesis possible. Using fluorous reagents as phase tags allows for the access of different synthetic routes, and this has been translated into a time reduction and higher simplicity compared to standard, nonfluorous procedures. The synthesis in fluorous phase of target molecules can be pursued in a parallel or combinatorial manner in order to access chemical libraries with structural and/or stereochemical diversity. The preparation of radiolabeled molecules also benefits from the advantages of fluorous synthesis. Finally, biochemical tools such as microarrays or proteomic techniques are improved by means of fluorous-tagged compounds.