Terminal Trifluoromethylation of Ketones via Selective C-C Cleavage of Cycloalkanols Enabled by Hypervalent Iodine Reagents

Org Lett. 2021 Dec 3;23(23):9204-9209. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.1c03526. Epub 2021 Nov 17.

Abstract

We report the first terminal trifluoromethylation at aryl and alkyl ketones' γ, δ, ε, or more remote sites via the selective C-C bond cleavage of cycloalkanols. The noncovalent interactions between alcohols and hypervalent iodines(III) reagents were disclosed to activate both alcohols and the Togni I reagent in the dual photoredox/copper catalysis for the transformation. This reaction was scalable to the gram-scale synthesis, applicable to the structurally complex steroid trifluoromethylation, and extendable to the pentafluoroethylation.