Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Fluoroform for -CF3 incorporation

numos - 22-4-2020 at 16:15

I have a 10lb cylinder of fluoroform. Anyone have any interesting ideas of what to do with it?

I am most interested in turning it into a labile CF3 group that I can install on other molecules. For example either CF3I or Me3Si-CF3. Scifinder seems to give only vague references and patents, and the few reactions I've seen require special Rhodium catalysts.

I feel like bubbling it into a strong base, KHMDS seems to be a common one, and then treating it with TMS-Cl should work pretty well?

Texium - 22-4-2020 at 16:35

According to my first quick search on Wikipedia, when fluoroform is deprotonated, it undergoes defluorination to form difluorocarbene.

Check out this paper though: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja2081026
It describes a very simple preparation of Cu-CF3