Copper-Mediated Cyanotrifluoromethylation of Styrenes Using the Togni Reagent

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Styrenes with an electron-deficient double bond undergo cyanotrifluoromethylation with a trifluoromethylated hypervalent iodine reagent in the presence of CuCN. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions in the presence of bulky phosphines or B2pin2 additives. The process is highly regioselective and involves the consecutive formation of two C-C bonds in a single addition reaction. In the presence of a p-methoxy substituent in the styrene, oxytrifluoromethylation occurs instead of the cyanotrifluoromethylation.