Fluorinating in flow

Connecting a trifluoromethyl group to an organic compound through a heteroatom such as nitrogen, oxygen, or sulfur can help chemists get the properties they want when designing small-molecule drugs or agrochemicals. But the leading methods for making those connections tend to rely on reagents that are expensive, atom inefficient, and difficult to scale up. Timothy Noël and his team at the University of Amsterdam wanted to fix that. They developed a flow-chemistry approach to making trifluoromethylated nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur anions from widely available precursors and attaching them to organic molecules ( Science 2024, DOI: 10.1126 /science.adq2954 ). Because the method creates the reactive fluorinated species as needed, Noël says, it cuts down on waste. “You can just make it on demand in your environment, and you’re ready to go.” It also doesn’t use any reagents that could be considered per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS ) under proposed European Union