The trifluoromethyl (CF 3) group is an advantageous structural motif in various biologically active molecules as well as materials, which is depicted by steadily increasing demand from the industries involved in drug discovery, agrochemicals and material development. β-trifluoromethyl α,βunsaturated carbonyl compounds constitute a very efficient building blocks as starting material in the synthesis of fluorinated molecules. Their usage for the synthesis of various heterocycles and organic molecules bearing stereogenic carbon containing CF 3 motif has received significant attention during the recent times. This review provides the existing methods for the synthesis of β-substituted trifluoromethyl-α,β-unsaturated ketones and the efforts made by researchers for the synthetic development through various reactions by employing them as synthetic building blocks for trifluoromethylated organic scaffolds.

Chemodivergent reactions are more advantageous in organic synthesis that yield diversely functionalized scaffolds from common starting materials. Herein, we report an efficient metal-free chemodivergent protocol for the synthesis of 1-substituted 9H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole derivatives in the presence of catalytic amounts of Lewis acid/Brønsted acid conditions using 3-substituted indoles and β-trifluoromethyl-α,β-unsaturated ketones. Fine-tuning of the catalyst and solvent system in the reaction conditions deliver the trifluoromethyl, trifluoroethylcarboxylate, or carboxylic acid substituents on the C1-position of 9H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole derivatives in situ. It is postulated that the solvent and LA/BA catalyst interaction was found to be crucial for the catalytic C–F activation in these transformations.