Chiral halomethane is the smallest stable molecule with a single asymmetric C-atom and halogenated acetic acids often serve as precursors. We focus on a synthetic route to synthesise chiral halogenated acetic acids with F, Cl, Br, and H/D isotopic substitution at the a-C-atom starting from diethyl malonate.This reactant is easily available, cheap and allows the obtainment of target acids in a few reaction steps with great versatility. Among all of the possible fully halogenated acetic acids (more than one hundred, which are, in principle, accessible by this route), there are only a small number of chiral halogenated acetic acids, which have been synthesized following the devised synthetic route.

Correction for ‘Synthetic routes for a variety of halogenated (chiral) acetic acids from diethyl malonate’ by Manuel R. Mazenauer et al., RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 55434–55440.

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The enantiomers of bromofluoroiodomethane (CHBrFI) were separated on a preparative scale using gas chromatography (GC). The collected single enantiomers were analysed by vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy and polarimetry in combination with ab initio calculations to determine the respective absolute configuration.