Chemodivergent Csp³─F bond functionalization and cross-electrophile alkyl-alkyl coupling with alkyl fluorides

The widespread use of fluorinated organic compounds in the health, agrochemical, and materials sciences is sustained by a steadily growing pool of commercially available fine chemicals. The synthetic utility of the increasingly ubiquitous Csp³─F bond, however, remains to be fully exploited, which is often a difficult task because of its paramount stability and chemical inertness. Here, we demonstrate chemodivergent activation of monofluoroalkyl compounds toward either nucleophilic or electrophilic intermediates. This is accomplished under conditions that are compatible with several reaction types and many functional groups, which drastically widens the current scope of organofluorine chemistry and sets the stage for carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond formations, stereoselective construction of bisoxindole alkaloid scaffolds via in situ Umpolung, and cross-electrophilic coupling methodology. The selective generation of either nucleophilic or electrophilic species and the possibility of doing so simultaneously or, alternatively, switching molecular polarity enable previously unidentified synthetic opportunities that recognize alkyl fluorides as chemodivergent building blocks.