This compound undergoes cycloreversion to form the fluoro(hetero)aryl ketene, which undergoes efficient coupling with nucleophiles and allows rapid incorporation of highly fluorinated α-fluoro(hetero)aryl acetic acid derivatives.
Organofluorine chemistry is an essential part of drug discovery programs as well as agrochemical programs and even plays a major role in materials chemistry. Despite the undeniable importance of fluorinated organic molecules, our ability to synthesize these substrates is lacking - though arguably it is better than that of Nature. Consequently, methods that allow facile access to fluorinated molecules are important especially when they provide unique access to fluorinated chemical space.
