A regioselective carbosilylation of alkenes has emerged as a powerful strategy to access molecules with functionalized silylated alkanes, by incorporating silyl and carbon groups across an alkene double bond. However, to the best of our knowledge, organic fluorides have never been used in this protocol. Here we disclose the catalyst-free carbosilylation of alkenes using silyl boronates and organic fluorides mediated by tBuOK. The main feature of this transformation is the selective activation of the C-F bond of an organic fluoride by the silyl boronate without undergoing potential side-reactions involving C-O, C-Cl, heteroaryl-CH, and even CF3 groups. Various silylated alkanes with tertiary or quaternary carbon centers that have aromatic, hetero-aromatic, and/or aliphatic groups at the β-position are synthesized in a single step from substituted or non-substituted aryl alkenes. An intramolecular variant of this carbosilylation is also achieved via the reaction of a fluoroarene with a ω-alkenyl side chain and a silyl boronate.

A simple protocol to overcome the explosive pentafluoroethylation of carbonyl compounds by HFC-125 is described. The use of potassium (K) bases with triglyme or tetraglyme as a solvent safely yields the pentafluoroethylation products in good to high yields. The experimental results suggest that an encapsulation of the K cation by glymes as K­(glyme)2 inhibits the contact between the K cation and the reactive anionic pentafluoroethyl counterion, preventing their transformation into KF and explosive tetrafluoroethylene (TFE). The generation of sterically demanding [K­(G3)2]+ and [K­(G4)2]+ is an effective way as an unstable pentafluoroethyl anion reservoir.

Fluoroform, HFC-23, is an industrial byproduct from the synthesis of polytetrafluoroethylene and is a vastly underused resource; however, its physicochemical properties have hindered progress toward synthetic uses. Herein, we describe the use of HFC-23 as a cheap trifluoromethylating agent in two reactions for the highly diastereoselective synthesis of medicinally attractive chiral amines with two stereogenic carbon centers: a base-dependent, stereodivergent nucleophilic addition to synthesize enantioenriched vicinal diamines and a tandem nucleophilic addition/aza-Michael sequence toward enantioenriched isoindolines.

A straightforward method that enables the formation of biologically attractive trifluoromethyl ketones from readily available methyl esters using the potent greenhouse gas fluoroform (HCF3, HFC-23) was developed. The combination of fluoroform and KHMDS in triglyme at −40 °C was effective for this transformation, with good yields as high as 92%. Substrate scope of the trifluoromethylation procedure was explored for aromatic, aliphatic, and conjugated methyl esters. This study presents a straightforward trifluoromethylation process of various methyl esters that convert well to the corresponding trifluoromethyl ketones. The tolerance of various pharmacophores under the reaction conditions was also explored.

The protocol of micro-flow nucleophilic pentafluoroethylation using pentafluoroethane (HC 2 F 5 , HFC-125), a nontoxic, inexpensive, and commercially available greenhouse gas, is described. The micro-flow pentafluoroethylation by HFC-125 proceeded smoothly at room temperature or at −10 °C in DMF or toluene in the presence of a potassium base, namely, t-BuOK or KHMDS. A broad range of ketones, aldehydes, and chalcones with various substituted benzene rings were successfully converted to the corresponding pentafluoroethyl carbinols instantly with good to high yields.