A series of new title compounds 3 was synthesised in moderate to excellent yield, by anodic fluorination of their corresponding hydrogenated homologues 1 in Et(3)N,3HF/CH3CN, followed by a chemical dehydrofluorination step. From vinyl sulfides, we showed that anodically generated vicinal difluoro adducts 2 were easily dehydrofluorinated by an E1cB mechanism, leading to 3 with high stereoselectivity in most cases. In contrast, the anodic behaviour of a thio flavone in the same media was slightly different, giving rise to the formation of vinylic fluoride 3 during the anodic fluorination. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd