Angewandte
Communications
Chemie
Arene Trifluoromethoxylation Very Important Paper
Catalytic C H Trifluoromethoxylation of Arenes and Heteroarenes
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Abstract: The intermolecular C H trifluoromethoxylation of
arenes remains a long-standing and unsolved problem in
organic synthesis. Herein, we report the first catalytic protocol
employing a novel trifluoromethoxylating reagent and redox-
as silver-mediated synthesis of trifluoromethoxylated
(hetero)arenes have advanced the state of the art
(Scheme 1a),[6b,7] a catalytic intermolecular C H trifluoro-
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methoxylation of (hetero)arenes remains elusive.[8] Such an
approach is appealing because it precludes the need for the
pre-functionalization of aromatic compounds. In addition,
direct disconnection of the OCF3 group could be envisioned
anywhere onto the target and at any time of the synthesis,
which would allow the late-stage trifluoromethoxylation of
complex molecules.
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active catalysts for the direct (hetero)aryl C H trifluorometh-
oxylation. Our approach is operationally simple, proceeds at
room temperature, uses easy-to-handle reagents, requires only
0.03 mol% of redox-active catalysts, does not need specialized
reaction apparatus, and tolerates a wide variety of functional
groups and complex structures such as sugars and natural
product derivatives. Importantly, both ground-state and photo-
excited redox-active catalysts are effective. Detailed computa-
tional and experimental studies suggest a unique reaction
pathway where photoexcitation of the trifluoromethoxylating
reagent releases the OCF3 radical that is trapped by (hetero)-
arenes. The resulting cyclohexadienyl radicals are oxidized by
redox-active catalysts and deprotonated to form the desired
products of trifluoromethoxylation.
T
he trifluoromethoxy (OCF3) group, which is found in more
than 350000 biologically active compounds according to
PubChem database as of October 2017, has a broad spectrum
of applications in pharmaceuticals.[1] The prevalence of the
OCF3 group in drugs can be attributed to its favorable
physicochemical properties such as outstanding electronega-
tivity (c = 3.7),[2] which improves molecular metabolic stabil-
ity, and excellent lipophilicity (Hansch parameter: Px =
1.04),[3] which enhances membrane permeability. Notably,
arenes bearing the OCF3 group have a distinct three-dimen-
sional scaffold where the plane containing the C-OCF3 group
is orthogonal to the plane of the aromatic ring.[4] Compounds
with such a structural architecture have been shown to
provide additional binding affinity to biological targets.[5]
Despite these attractive characteristics and the presence
of the OCF3 group in marketed drugs and agrochemicals, only
a handful of approaches have been reported for the synthesis
of trifluoromethoxylated arenes over the last 60 years.[6]
Although recent reports of several powerful strategies such
Scheme 1. Synthesis of trifluoromethoxylated (hetero)arenes.
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Seeking to establish C H trifluoromethoxylation reac-
tions, we recently described an easy and robust synthesis of
a wide range of (hetero)aromatic hydroxylamides bearing the
N–OCF3 moiety, which undergo thermally induced hetero-
lytic cleavage of the N–OCF3 bond to form a nitrenium-
trifluoromethoxide ion pair.[9] Fast recombination of such an
ion pair affords the products of intramolecular (hetero)aryl
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C H trifluoromethoxylation. We questioned whether the
photoexcitation of an appropriate N–OCF3 compound could
result in a homolytic cleavage of the N-OCF3 bond (BDE
ꢀ 50 kcalmolÀ1) and the release of the OCF3 radical, which
might be trapped intermolecularly by arenes to afford the
products of trifluoromethoxylation.[6k] Herein, we report the
successful development of a catalytic protocol utilizing an
unprecedented trifluoromethoxylating reagent and redox-
[*] W. Zheng, J. W. Lee, Prof. M.-Y. Ngai
Department of Chemistry
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active catalysts for the direct intermolecular C H trifluoro-
methoxylation of various (hetero)arenes at room temperature
(Scheme 1b).
and Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794 (USA)
A key to the success of the proposed transformation is the
development of easy-to-handle trifluoromethoxylating
reagents that release the OCF3 radical under mild reaction
conditions. After exploration of a wide array of reagents
bearing the N–OCF3 moiety, we were pleased to identify
OCF3-reagent 1 capable of direct trifluoromethoxylation of
arenes.[10] Upon exposing 1 (1 equiv) and benzene (10 equiv)
in acetonitrile (MeCN) to a 10 W light-emitting diode (LED,
lem = 402 nm, Figure S5) at room temperature for 16 hours,
E-mail: ming-yu.ngai@stonybrook.edu
C. A. Morales-Rivera, P. Liu
Department of Chemistry
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (USA)
E-mail: pengliu@pitt.edu
Supporting information and the ORCID identification number(s) for
the author(s) of this article can be found under:
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 1 – 6
ꢀ 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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