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Fluoroallylic alcohols are easy to synthesise by a variety of routes using one or two carbon fluorinated building blocks. Sigmatropic rearrangement then transforms these intermediates into species in which the fluorine atom (or atoms) is borne on an sp3-hybridised carbon. Alternatively, allylic alcohols can be transformed into fluorinated vinyl ether derivatives; rearrangement then affords products in which the fluorine atoms occupy a different and complementary location with respect to a carbonyl function.

Whereas the lithium enolates of acetate and propionate esters of difluoroallylic alcohols fragment rapidly, even at −78 °C, methoxy- and benzyloxy-acetates form chelated enolates which undergo smooth [3,3]-rearrangement as their silyl ketene acetals. The latent ketone function can be revealed under mild conditions (MeOH, SOCl2) to afford very highly functionalised CF2 compounds.