Current State of Microflow Trifluoromethylation Reactions

The trifluoromethyl group is a powerful structural motif in drugs and polymers; thus, developing trifluoromethylation reactions is an important area of research in organic chemistry. Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made in developing new methods for the trifluoromethylation of organic molecules, ranging from nucleophilic and electrophilic approaches to transition-metal catalysis, photocatalysis, and electrolytic reactions. While these reactions were initially developed in batch systems, more recent microflow versions are highly attractive for industrial applications owing to their scalability, safety, and time efficiency. In this review, we discuss the current state of microflow trifluoromethylation. Approaches for microflow trifluoromethylation based on different trifluoromethylation reagents are described, including continuous flow, flow photochemical, microfluidic electrochemical reactions, and large-scale microflow reactions.