Palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions of tetrafluoroethylene with arylzinc compounds.

Organofluorine compounds are widely used in all aspects of the chemical industry. Although tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) is an example of an economical bulk organofluorine feedstock, the use of TFE is mostly limited to the production of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) and copolymers with other alkenes. Furthermore, no catalytic transformation of TFE that involves carbon-fluorine bond activation has been reported to date. We herein report the first example of a palladium-catalyzed coupling reaction of TFE with arylzinc reagents in the presence of lithium iodide, giving α,β,β-trifluorostyrene derivatives in excellent yields.