Silyl nitronates of 2,2,2-trifluoronitroethane and of l,l,l-trifluoro-2-nitropropane [SiMe3, SiMez(tBu), SiMezCMezCHMez] were prepared and their reactions studied. -The TBDMS nitronate of the nitroethane is present as the ( E ) and (Z) isomer (2.3:l at room temperature; EA = 9.3 kcal mol-l for their isomerization). Bu4NF-catalyzed silyl nitro aldol additions to aldehydes show reasonable selectivities for the formation of the syn diastereoisomers of 5-13 (ca. 4 : l ; with the non-fluorinated analogs anti isomers prevailing!). The anti epimers (5-9, 12, 13, 1?-20) in the trifluoromethyl series can be prepared by diastereoselective protonation of the corresponding 0-silyl lithium nitronates (ca. 9: 1, Scheme 3). Careful reduction of the NOz groups (Hz/Raney nickel) gives trifluoroamino alcohol derivatives (22-30, Scheme 4). -The trimethylsilyl nitronates are also used for 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions (to 1-hexene, styrene, methyl vinyl ketone, and acrylates) to give N-(sily1oxy)isoxazolidines (32-40; Scheme 5). The configuration of the major products (2,3-cis, 3,5-trans) was derived from NMR measurements, X-ray structure determinations, and thermal equilibration studies. The major course of reaction was thus derived to be an exo approach of the dipolarophiles to the (Z)-silyl nitronates (Scheme 8). -Some conversions of the W(sily1oxy)isoxazolidines (treatment with acid, base, and Raney nickel) are also described (products 42-51).Since the first report published in the early 1970s by Joffe and Tartakovskii[21, silyl nitronates of type A have become versatile reagents in synthetic organic chemistry [3]. They have found broad applications as 1,3-dipoles in 13 + 21 cycloadditi~ns[~~~] yielding isoxazolidines or, after loss of silanol, A2-isoxazolines. Silyl nitronates A are in this case synthetic equivalents of nitrile oxides, and the formed heterocycles are not only precursors to amino alcohols, but also to P-hydroxy ketones (an alternative access to aldol~[~I). On the other hand, mediated by fluoride ions, primary silyl nitronates A (R2 = H) undergo highly diastereoselective additions to aldehydes with the formation of erythro O-silylated nitro (nitro aldolsr71, cf. Henry reaction). Further examples of the reactions of silyl nitronates have been collected in some extensive review articled3].Because of the importance of fluorine-containing molecules in chemical and pharmaceutical trifluoromethyl-substituted building blocks, such as the fluoro nitro alkanes 1 and 2191 have attracted significant interest. In previous work, Baasner's group[l0I and ours ["] have described the use of 1 and 2 in aldol and Michael additions. However, the observed diastereoselectivity for the aldol addition to aldehydes was usually low. Another approach would be to use silyl nitronates 3 and 4. However, previous attempts led to mixed results with these compounds: specifically, 4a was prepared by deprotonation and trapping with tert-butyldimethylsilyl chloride on one occasion, but the experiment was not reproducible[llb1. In this paper, we repor...