Chemistry of new polyfluorinated oxiranyl anions and epoxy silanes

The reaction of partially fluorinated epoxides with strong, hindered bases in the presence of electrophiles resulted in functionalization of the epoxy ring. For example, the reaction of hexafluoroisobutene epoxide with LDA and trimethyl- or triethychlorosilanes at low temperature led to the formation of the corresponding epoxy silanes. In the case of the E- and Z-epoxides of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluorobutene-2, the deprotonation step can be successfully carried out using i-PrMgCl^.LiCl (Turbo Grignard reagent), and the reaction with chlorosilanes can be carried out at ambient temperature, which significantly simplifies the synthetic protocol. The process was found to be stereospecific, proceeding with complete retention of configuration of the epoxide ring and giving access to pure E- or Z-isomers of the corresponding epoxy silanes. Using this protocol, the corresponding epoxy silanes were also prepared from the epoxides of E-3,3,3,1-tetrafluoropropene-1 and 3,3,3-trifluoropropene-1.

The new silanes were demonstrated to be convenient reagents for the transfer of a fluorinated epoxy moiety to carbonyl compounds under fluoride anion catalysis. This process was shown to proceed with complete retention of the geometry of the epoxy ring.