Synthesis and Application of Well‐Defined Fluoroalkyl Zinc Complexes

Abstract

Fluoroalkyl groups play an irreplaceable role in the field of pharmaceutical and agrochemical industry due to their unique properties. Based on this, it is crucial to effectively introduce fluoroalkyl groups into target molecules. In this review, we describe the synthesis of well‐defined fluoroalkyl zinc complexes and their applications in the fluoroalkylation of compounds. Different from the reactivities of copper fluoroalkyl complexes, fluoroalkyl zinc complexes often needed to be combined with copper or nickel catalysts when participating in fluoroalkylation reactions. From the perspective of reaction mechanism, the transfer of trifluoromethyl from zinc complexes to copper catalysts formed the highly active trifluoromethyl copper reagents, which can be directly used for the fluoroalkylation. In most cases, the desired target products were provided with excellent yields.