Defluorinative Multicomponent Cascade Reaction of Trifluoromethylarenes via Photoexcited Palladium Catalysis

The incorporation of aromatic difluoromethyl motifs has proven to be a fruitful strategy for enhancing the therapeutic profiles of modern pharmaceutical candidates. While the defluorofunctionalization of trifluoromethylarenes offers a promising pathway toward diverse aromatic difluoromethyl compounds, current methods are predominantly limited to two-component reactions. Multicomponent cascade reactions (MCRs) involving a transient aromatic difluoromethyl radical are still uncommon and highly sought after, owing to their capacity to rapidly generate challenging molecular structures. In this study, we present a photocatalytic manifold that combines commercially available trifluoromethylarenes, feedstock dienes, and various nucleophiles to achieve a modular defluorinative MCR. This method features mild reaction conditions and a broad substrate scope with excellent functional group compatibility. Furthermore, this protocol enables a previously unreported process of defluorinative editing for the resulting MCR aromatic difluoromethyl adducts. Preliminary mechanistic studies support the proposed photoexcited palladium catalytic cycle.