A silver-promoted oxidative benzylic C-H trifluoromethoxylation has been reported for the first time. With trifluoromethyl arylsulfonate as the trifluoromethoxylation reagent, various arenes, having diverse functional groups, undergo trifluoromethoxylation of their benzylic C-H bonds to form trifluoromethyl ethers under mild reaction conditions. In addition, the trifluoromethoxylation and the fluorination of methyl groups of electron-rich arenes have been achieved to prepare α-fluorobenzyl trifluoromethyl ethers in one step.
Keywords: C−H functionalization; fluorine; reaction mechanisms; silver; synthetic methods.
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