Rhodium catalyzed synthesis of difluoromethyl cyclopropanes

Abstract

Difluoromethyl-substituted cyclopropanes still remain one of the most challenging class of substrates. Despite significant progress in modern chemistry, an atom-economic and concise synthesis has not been described to date. Herein, we describe the first method for their catalytic, one-step synthesis using difluoromethyl diazomethane and a rhodium(ii) catalyst.