Radical trifluoromethylation of ketone Li enolates

It has generally been believed that highly basic Li enolates cannot be applied as substrates for radical trifluoromethylation due to defluorination of the alpha-CF3 product. However, Li enolates can be in fact employed for radical trifluoromethylation. Moreover, the reaction is extremely fast and the minimum reaction time is only similar to 1 s. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.