De Novo Enantioselective Synthesis of Hexafluorinated d-Glucose

We report a de novo enantioselective synthesis of 2,3,4-trideoxy-2,2,3,3,4,4-hexafluoro-d-glycero-hexopyranose (hexafluorinated d-glucose), an iconic polar hydrophobic glycomimetic. The 12-step synthesis features robust and reproducible chemistry and was achieved by incorporating an asymmetric dihydroxylation step to install the stereogenic center with excellent enantioselectivity (95:5 er). Virtual enantiopurity (>99.5% ee) was further reached using a simple crystallization procedure and the absolute confirmation was ascertained by X-ray analysis. The synthetic route also allowed access to the novel hexafluorinated heptose derivative 2,3,4-trideoxy-2,2,3,3,4,4-hexafluoro-l-threo-heptopyranose.