The research team of Ying Xia, a research fellow of West China School of Public Health, has published online a research paper entitled “Rhodium Catalyzed Regioselective C–H Allylation of Simple Arenes via C–C Bond Activation of Gem-difluorinated Cyclopropanes” in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (if: 12.959), which is an authoritative journal of chemistry. Zhongtao Jiang , a doctoral candidate of WCSPH, is the first author of this paper. Ying Xia is the only corresponding author of this paper. The first work unit of this paper is West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University (West China Fourth Hospital) / State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy.

Abstract: “Herein, we report a rhodium catalyzed directing-group free regioselective C−H allylation of simple arenes. Readily available gem-difluorinated cyclopropanes can be employed as highly reactive allyl surrogates via a sequence of C−C and C−F bond activation, providing allyl arene derivatives in good yields with high regioselectivity under mild conditions. The robust methodology enables facile late-stage functionalization of complex bioactive molecules. The high efficiency of this reaction is also demonstrated by the high turnover number (TON, up to 1700) of the rhodium catalyst on gram-scale experiments. Preliminary success on kinetic resolution of this transformation is achieved, providing a promising access to enantio-enriched gem-difluorinated cyclopropanes.”

This is the first report based on RH catalyzed allylation of difluorocyclopropane with arenes, which provides a new idea and method for direct allylation of simple arenes.

Https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202016258