Fluorination of 2‐bromo‐4,5‐dimethylphenol with xenon difluoride

Abstract Fluorination of 2‐bromo‐4,5‐dimethylphenol ( 1 ) with xenon difluoride, using boron trifluoride etherate as catalyst, gave 2‐bromo‐4,5‐dimethyl‐4‐fluorocyclohexa‐2,5‐dienone ( 2 ), 2‐bromo‐3,4‐dimethyl‐6‐fluorophenol ( 3 ) and 6‐bromo‐3,4‐dimethyl‐2‐fluorophenol (4). The products were isolated by means of preparative reverse‐phase HPLC and identified by 1 H and 13 C NMR spectroscopy.