Researchers from Zelinsky Institute developed an effective method of the synthesis of organofluorine compounds through alkenes difunctionalization

Difunctionalization of alkenes is one of the most common and simple methods for obtaining polyfunctional structures in a minimum number of steps. The use of the photocatalytic approach for this purpose is especially attractive: transformations under the action of visible light are an environmentally friendly alternative to many traditional chemical approaches.

As part of the research by scientists of laboratory № 8 of Zelinsky Institute in the field of organofluorine chemistry, the process of fluoroalkylation-thiolation of alkenes under blue light irradiation was developed. The presence of a 4-tetrafluoropyridinylthio fragment as a photoredox-active group in the starting substrate turned out to be a key factor in achieving high yields of difunctionalization products. The discovered process can be considered as a versatile approach to the synthesis of various fluorinated compounds — important structures in pharmaceuticals and agrochemistry — from a wide range of available alkenes.

Source:

Mikhail D. Kosobokov, Mikhail O. Zubkov, Vitalij V. Levin, Vladimir A. Kokorekin, and Alexander D. Dilman Fluoroalkyl sulfides as photoredox-active coupling reagents for alkene difunctionalization Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 66, 9453-9456, DOI: 10.1039/D0CC04617E