Abstract
The development of an efficient and general trifluoromethylation or perfluoroalkylation method is a major challenge in organic chemistry. This Account presents the breakthrough realized in this field using polyfluoroalkylated gem-iodoacetoxy derivatives which are useful synthons for the short preparation of various fluorinated organic compounds. The main body of this Account highlights several applications of these new derivatives as starting blocks for diverse regiospecific syntheses of trifluoromethyl- and perfluoroalkyl-containing heterocyclic compounds. A brief discussion of the use of a new method for the determination of the configuration and conformation of push-pull perfluoroalkyl-containing olefinic derivatives using coupling constant 4JCF is included.