Many drug compounds and agrochemicals are fluorinated, but adding fluorine atoms to organic molecules can be dangerous and expensive. Patrick Fier and John Hartwig at the University of California, Berkeley, report a way to fluorinate one class of molecules at room temperature and without the need for harsh reagents.

They showed that silver(II) fluoride can swap a hydrogen atom for a fluorine atom on molecules containing nitrogen as part of a ring of carbon atoms. The reaction replaces only the hydrogen attached to carbons next to the nitrogen in the ring. It occurs quickly and uses only commercially available reagents.

Science 342, 956–960 (2013)