Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.140, No.29, 9061-9065, 2018
Enantioselective Copper-Catalyzed Defluoroalkylation Using Arylboronate-Activated Alkyl Grignard Reagents
A copper-catalyzed system has been introduced for the enantioselective defluoroalkylation of linear 1-(trifluoromethyl)alkenes through C-F activation to synthesize various gem-difluoroalkenes as carbonyl mimics. For the first time, arylboronate-activated alkyl Grignard reagents were uncovered in this cross-coupling reaction. Mechanistic studies confirmed that the tetraor-ganoborate complexes generated in situ were the key reactive species for this transformation.