Synthesis of monotrifluoromethyl-substituted saturated cycles

Synthesis of mono-trifluoromethylated saturated cycles has emerged as an important research area that has previously received little attention in reviews. This review illustrates a variety of reagents available for direct trifluoromethylation of non-fluorinated cycles, and various CF3-containing synthetic building blocks that may be incorporated into the cyclic compounds. Direct trifluoromethylation has been dominated by the use of TFMTMS on cyclic ketones and lactones because of its simplicity. The more widely applicable approach is that of converting readily available simple trifluoromethylated compounds into a variety of cycles. Here, the Diels-Alder reactions and 1,3- dipolar cycloadditions of the trifluoromethylated alkenes are of significant value. Many mono-trifluoromethylated saturated cycles are accessible from trifluoromethylated carbonyl compounds by a number of multiple-step synthetic routes. It is hoped that this Report will help guide synthetic chemists who are not organo-fluorine specialists to develop synthetic routes to trifluoromethylsubstituted saturated cycles.