Perfluoralkylsulfones

Synthesis and Application of Perfluoroalkylsulfones

Since more than 15 years we are interested in the preparative application of perfluoroalkanesulfonyl groups in organic chemistry. Double bonds substituted with strong electron - attracting perfluoroalkanesulfonyl group are well activated and are therefor suitable for Diels - Alder reaction.The perfluoroalkyl sulfone products formed can be used further preparatively or the perfluoralkylgroup can be replaced wifth hydrogen.

There are several reviews and a textbook [1] on the chemistry of sulfones, however, they all deal mainly with phenyl or arylsulfones. As one of the first research groups, we have successfully used the strong perfluoroalkanesulfonyl group in different reactions. in general, the synthetic potential of trifluoromethanesulfones (triflones) and nonafluoromethanesulfones (nonaflone) were systematically studied.
Perfluoroalkanesulfones were prepared form the corresponding perfluoroalkanesulfonic acid sodium salt and appropriate alkyl halides (Scheme 1). Perfluoroalkanesulfonyl substituted alkenes and alkynes were prepared according to Scheme 2 [2-5] .

Scheme 1:



Scheme 2:



The influence of perfluoroalkansulfonyl groups to activitate the C-C- single und double bonds has been systematically investigated by us [6-8] These studies show ethenyl perfluoroalkansulfones to be strong dieneophiles capable of undergoing Diels- Alder reaction already at room temperature. Alkynyl sulfones are found to undergo easy nucleophilie substitution (Scheme 3).

Scheme 3:



Recently, we have successfully generated perfluoroalkanesulfonyl substituted carbenes according to Scheme 4 [9] .

Scheme 4:



During the studies on the very reactive phenyliodoniumethoxynonaflylmethanide, we discovered two new reactions, e.g. the formation of - lactons [10] (Scheme 5).

Scheme 5:




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