The prepared ring-perfluorinated trimethine cyanine dye 2a has a significantly higher response to n-hexylamine than the non-fluorinated dye 2b, and exhibited a dual change in the solution and on filter paper and fluorescence color at widely shifted wavelengths, visible to the naked eye.

We have developed a new one‐pot synthesis of α‐aryl‐ and α‐heteroaryl‐α‐trifluoromethyl alcohols carrying not only arenes with electron‐withdrawing groups but also electron‐deficient nitrogen‐containing heteroarenes, which are of increasing interest because these compounds are some of the most important units in current fluorine‐containing inhibitors or antagonists. This new method includes three tandem reactions in a one‐pot synthesis: (1) the in situ generation of functionalized aromatic and electron‐deficient heteroaromatic Grignard reagents, (2) trifluoroacetylation of the generated Grignard reagents with diphenylmethyl trifluoroacetate, and (3) successive Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley type reduction. It offers several advantages, including no need for expensive transition metals and gaseous trifluoromethylating reagents, toleration of not only reducible functional groups on the aryl groups but also electron‐deficient nitrogen‐containing heterocycles, easy scalability, and the ability to suppress the formation of the bis‐aldol product as a by‐product by changing the ester moiety of the trifluoroacetate from an isopropyl to a diphenylmethyl group.

A novel straightforward one‐pot methodology for two successive turbo Grignard reagent (iPrMgCl·LiCl) reactions, was developed for a facile synthesis of α‐aryl‐α‐trifluoromethyl alcohols, motifs of value in pharmaceutical chemistry. The method displayed broad functional group tolerance, including reducible groups. Dual roles of iPrMgCl·LiCl were exploited in the tandem reaction with commercially available iodoarenes or iodoheteroarenes and 2,2,2‐trifluoroethyl trifluoroacetate. The process encompasses three successive reactions in a one‐pot process: the iPrMgCl·LiCl‐mediated iodine/magnesium‐exchange reaction of iodoarenes or iodoheteroarenes; nucleophilic addition of various generated aryl or heteroarylmagnesium reagents to 2,2,2‐trifluoroethyl trifluoroacetate; and the reduction of in‐situ generated aryl trifluoromethyl ketones with iPrMgCl·LiCl, to produce the corresponding α‐aryl or α‐heteroaryl‐α‐trifluoromethyl alcohols bearing various substituents, including reducible functional groups in good to excellent yields.

A highly diastereo- and enantioselective organocatalytic method to synthesise erythritols bearing a trifluoromethyl group has been investigated.

We have developed a functional-group-tolerant one-pot route to various 3-substituted 1-trifluoromethylpropargyl alcohols utilizing two reactions of cyclopentylmagnesium bromide with trifluoroacetic acid esters and terminal alkynes. This new synthetic method involves three successive reactions in a one-pot process: 1) deprotonation of terminal alkynes with cyclopentylmagnesium bromide, 2) reduction of 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl trifluoroacetate with cyclopentylmagnesium bromide, and 3) nucleophilic addition of in-situ-generated alkynyl Grignard reagents to in-situ-formed trifluoroacetaldehyde, leading to the corresponding 3-substituted 1-trifluoromethylated propargyl alcohols. This method can be applied to various fluorine-containing esters as well as terminal alkynes bearing alkyl and aryl groups to give 1-polyfluoroalkylated propargyl alcohols. The obtained 1trifluoromethylpropargyl alcohols with aromatic groups can be converted in good to excellent yields to 1,5-diaryl-3trifluoromethyl-dihydropyrazoles, some of the most important motifs in medicine for the treatment of pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis in dogs.