The effect of fluoro substituent on the regioselectivity of several reactions of 3,6-disubstituted arynes was studied. These arynes contained another inductively electron-withdrawing substituent other than fluorine. A reasonable degree of regiocontrol was achieved in the (3 + 2) cycloaddition reaction of 3,6-disubstituted aryne containing both fluorine and bromine atoms with benzyl azide. Furthermore, the insertion reaction of aryne into Sn-F σ-bonds and the three-component coupling reaction involving the insertion of aryne into C=O π-bonds also led to the high degree of regiocontrol.
Keywords: aryne; aryne precursor; fluorine atom; regioselectivity.