Regioselective Nickel‐Catalyzed Hydroarylation of <i>gem</i>‐Difluoroalkenes for the Synthesis of the ArCF2−${\rm{ArCF}}_{{2}^{-}}$ Moiety

The incorporation of fluorine and fluorinated functional groups into organic molecules alters their physicochemical properties, thereby facilitating the advancement of novel therapeutics, agricultural chemicals, biological probes, and materials. Nevertheless, there remains a deficiency of methodologies for the catalytic synthesis of certain significant fluorine-containing groups, such as <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:semantics><mml:msub><mml:mi>ArCF</mml:mi> <mml:msup><mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo></mml:msup> </mml:msub> <mml:annotation>${\rm{ArCF}}_{{2}^{-}}$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> , under mild conditions utilizing earth-abundant metals. Herein, we report a method for the regioselective hydroarylation of gem-difluoroalkenes under mild conditions with the aid of Ni─H intermediate catalysis, which is capable of efficiently synthesizing compounds containing the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:semantics><mml:msub><mml:mi>ArCF</mml:mi> <mml:msup><mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo></mml:msup> </mml:msub> <mml:annotation>${\rm{ArCF}}_{{2}^{-}}$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> structural motifs and possesses good functional group tolerance.