Direct Triflylation of Benzylic C-H Bonds with Pyridine as a Directing Group

Recent trends in catalytic sp3 C-H functionalization of heterocycles

Heterocycles are a ubiquitous substructure in organic small molecules designed for use in materials and medicines. Recent work in catalysis has focused on enabling access to new heterocycle structures by sp³ C-H functionalization on alkyl side-chain substituents-especially at the heterobenzylic position-with more than two hundred manuscripts published just within the last ten years. Rather than describing in detail each of these reports, in this mini-review we attempt to highlight gaps in existing techniques. A semi-quantitative overview of ongoing work strongly suggests that several specific heterocycle types and bond formations outside of C-C, C-N, and C-O have been almost completely overlooked.

Trifluoromethyl-substituted selenium ylide: a broadly applicable electrophilic trifluoromethylating reagent

An easily available, air/moisture insensitive and broadly applicable electrophilic reagent trifluoromethyl-substituted selenium ylide 1a and its reactions with a variety of nucleophiles including β-ketoesters and silyl enol ethers, aryl/heteroaryl boronic acids, electron-rich heteroarenes and sulfinates were described.