AgF-Mediated Fluorinative Homocoupling of gem-Difluoroalkenes

A novel silver­(I)-fluoride-mediated homocoupling reaction of β,β-difluoro­styrene derivatives is described. The transformation is initiated via nucleophilic addition of silver­(I) fluoride to β,β-difluoro­styrenes, which is followed by dimerization of the corresponding benzyl­silver intermediates. The reaction shows good substrate scope, functional group tolerance, and represents the first report on the reactivity of (α-tri­fluoro­methyl)­benzyl­silver species.