Initial Mechanistic Investigations. In our initial report on Pd-catalyzed allylic fluorination, the reaction mechanism was intriguing due to several conflicting observations.22 As in our original proposal, we found that C−F bond formation occurs via an outer-sphere pathway wherein fluoride attacks the allyl ligand with inversion of stereochemistry (Scheme 3). Although fluoride is generally classified as a hard nucleophile due to its high charge density, this stereochemical outcome differs from that obtained in allylic substitutions with hard nucleophiles such as organomagnesium reagents and hydride. These reactions are known to proceed by retention of stereochemistry via an inner-sphere mechanism in which transmetalation of the nucleophile precedes reductive elimination.17,31