Facile Access to Fluoromethylated Arenes by Nickel-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling between Arylboronic Acids and Fluoromethyl Bromide.

The nickel-catalyzed fluoromethylation of arylboronic acids was achieved with the industrial raw material fluoromethyl bromide (CH2 FBr) as the coupling partner. The reaction proceeded under mild reaction conditions with high efficiency; it features the use of a low-cost nickel catalyst, synthetic simplicity, and excellent functional-group compatibility, and provides facile access to fluoromethylated biologically relevant molecules. Preliminary mechanistic studies showed that a single-electron-transfer (SET) pathway is involved in the catalytic cycle.