Visible-light-promoted radical cyclisation of unactivated alkenes in benzimidazoles: synthesis of difluoromethyl- and aryldifluoromethyl-substituted polycyclic imidazoles

• Yujun Pang,
• Jinglan Yan,
• Nawaf Al-Maharik,
• Qian Zhang,
• Zeguo Fang and
• Dong Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 234–241, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.15

• pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals nowadays, largely due to the unique ability of fluorinated groups to influence the physicochemical and biochemical properties of molecules [1][2][3]. Among the various fluorinated functionalities, the difluoromethyl (CF2H) group and its aryl-substituted derivative, the benzylic

Quantifying the ability of the CF₂H group as a hydrogen bond donor

• Matthew E. Paolella,
• Daniel S. Honeycutt,
• Bradley M. Lipka,
• Jacob M. Goldberg and
• Fang Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 189–199, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.11

• systems significantly enhances its hydrogen bond donation ability, a result consistent with theoretical calculations. We anticipate that this chemistry will be valuable for designing functional molecules for chemical biology and medicinal chemistry applications. Keywords: bioisostere; difluoromethyl

• (CF2H); fluorine; hydrogen bond donors; hydrogen bond strength; Introduction Hydrogen bonding interactions are ubiquitous non-covalent forces in chemistry and biology [1][2][3][4]. In canonical hydrogen bond (HB) donor–acceptor pairs, the donor typically comprises an electronegative heteroatom, such as

Copper-catalyzed asymmetric methylation of fluoroalkylated pyruvates with dimethylzinc

• Kohsuke Aikawa,
• Kohei Yabuuchi,
• Kota Torii and
• Koichi Mikami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 576–582, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.44

• [1][2]. Therefore, the development of novel synthetic methods for the introduction of fluorinated fragments, such as trifluoromethyl (CF3), difluoromethyl (CF2H), and difluoromethylene (-CF2-), has attracted a great deal of attention from synthetic organic chemists [3][4][5][6]. Among these methods