A vicarious one-pot transformation of a fluorocyclitol to a polycyclitol: observation of a formal 4-fold axial-equatorial epimerization on a conformationally locked scaffold

(2R,3R,4aS,6S,7S,8aS)-4a-Fluoro-8a-hy-droxy-perhydro-naphthalene-2,3,6,7-tetrayl tetraacetate

The title compound, C(18)H(25)FO(9), exhibits a similar unit cell and packing to the α polymorph of axial 4a,8a-dihy-droxy-per-hydro-naph-tha-lene-2,3,6,7-tetrayl tetraacetate. The carbonyl O atoms of two of the four acetate groups in the molecule are disordered over two sites with occupancy ratios of 0.59 (4):0.41 (4) and 0.57 (6):0.43 (6). Crystal packing is effected via inter-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, which link the tetra-acetate mol-ecules into tapes along the c axis.