Recent advances in the photocatalytic applications of ethyl bromodifluoroacetate: A review

Organic compounds bearing fluorine atoms have received widespread attention in recent years owing to their specific bioactivity and good biocompatibility compared to their nonfluorinated counterparts. Ethyl bromodifluoroacetate, a key difluoroalkyl reagent, plays a significant role in organic synthesis and is widely used to introduce difluorine groups into various molecules. This review describes recent advances in photocatalytic difluorination reactions using ethyl bromodifluoroacetate. Ethyl bromodifluoroacetate, as a key difluoroalkyl reagent, plays a significant role in organic synthesis and has been extensively employed for the incorporation of difluoromethyl groups into the diverse molecular skeleton. This review comprehensively summarizes the recent progress in visible-light-mediated difluoroalkylation reactions employing ethyl bromodifluoroacetate. Based on its divergent reactivity patterns on these transformations, we have categorized the representative examples into distinct classes.