Carbonylation of Difluoroalkyl Bromides Catalyzed by Palladium.

Although important progress has been made in the fluoroalkylation reactions, the transition-metal-catalyzed carbonylative fluoroalkylation reaction remains challenging so far. Herein, we report the first example of a Pd-catalyzed carbonylation of difluoroalkyl bromides with (hetero)arylboronic acids under one atmosphere pressure of CO. The reaction can also be extended to the aryl potassium trifluoroborate salts. The advantages of this protocol are synthetic simplicity, broad substrate scope, and excellent functional group compatibility. The resulting difluoroalkyl ketones can serve as versatile building blocks for the synthesis of various useful fluorinated compounds.