Visible-light-driven radical difluoroalkylation/cyclization of N-allyl and N-homoallyl aldehyde hydrazones with [Ph3PCF2H]+Br-
Jinkui Chai,
a Lili Wang,
a Shilong Zhang,
a Xiaoxiao Zhu,
a Jinwei Yuan,
a,* Yongmei Xiao,
a Shouren Zhang,
b,* Lingbo Qu
c,d,*
Organic Chemistry Frontiers,
2026, DOI: 10.1039/d6qo01138a.

A visible-light-driven radical difluoroalkylation/cyclization of
N-allyl and
N-homoallyl aldehyde hydrazones is reported using readily accessible bromodifluoromethylphosphonium bromide ([Ph
3PCF
2H]
+Br
-) as a bench-stable difluoromethyl radical source. This transformation enables efficient access to difluoroalkyl-substituted dihydropyrazoles and tetrahydropyridazines under mild, additive- and base-free conditions. Selected dihydropyrazole products also undergo a subsequent photocatalytic dehydrogenation to give the corresponding difluoroalkylated pyrazoles. Preliminary mechanistic investigations suggest that the reaction proceeds via a difluoromethyl radical-mediated cascade cyclization pathway.