Silver-catalyzed oxidative activation of benzylic C-H bonds for the synthesis of difluoromethylated arenes

Abstract

A mild and catalytic method to form difluoromethylated arenes through the activation of benzylic C-H bonds has been developed. Utilizing AgNO3 as the catalyst, various arenes with diverse functional groups undergo activation/fluorination of benzylic C-H bonds with commercially available Selectfluor reagent as a source of fluorine in aqueous solution. The reaction is operationally simple and amenable to gram-scale synthesis.

Keywords: CH activation; arenes; fluorination; silver; synthetic methods.