Nucleophilic trifluoromethylation - Some recent reagents and their stereoselective aspects

This review is a survey of several original reagents that have been designed, and are still under study, for nucleophilic trifluoromethylation. The starting materials were fluoral or trifluoroacetamides as well as trifluoromethanesulfinamides. Trifluoroacetamides or trifluoromethanesulfinamides derived from O-silylated-1,2-aminoalcohols constitute the most attractive family since they exhibit the larger scope and are able to trifluoromethylate enolizable as well as non-enolizable carbonyl substrates, even at room temperature when a substituent is present at the a-position relative to the nitrogen atom. Promising results have been obtained with some members of this family, concerning enantioselective trifluoromethylation of prochiral substrates. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.