Research Projects

The functionalization of polyfluorinated compounds into partially fluorinated compounds through the cleavage of the C-F bond is a challenging task in the scientific community. Single C-F bond activation in CF3-alkenes is difficult due to the high bond dissociation energy for the first C-F bond, and as the number of fluorines on carbon decreases, the bond dissociation energy for subsequent C-F bonds decreases, potentially resulting in multiple C-F bond activations. This has led to a growing interest in single C-F bond activation in CF3-dienes. A new method is proposed for selective single C-F bond activation in CF3-dienes for the synthesis of fluorinated building blocks. The strategy involves using naturally abundant and cheap alkaline earth metals, which have a high negative value of reduction potential and can easily reduce CF3-dienes. The C-F bond activation process can be facilitated by the presence of TMSCl. The project's success is supported by preliminary results, including the isolation of the expected reaction imtermediate TMS-difluoroalkene and confirmation of C-F bond cleavage in CF3-diene (benzofulvene) by 19F NMR Spectroscopy. This simple, green, eco-friendly, and financially cheap method will be accessible to a large research community, offering a simple and green approach to selective single C-F bond cleavage in lesser explored trifluoromethyl-dienes.