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Diarylfluoromethylsulfonium salts, alternatives to freons or advanced fluorinated building blocks, are bench stable and easy-to-use sources of direct fluoromethylene (:CHF) transfer to alkenes. These salts enabled development of a trans-selective monofluorinated Johnson–Corey–Chaykovsky reaction with vinyl sulfones or vinyl sulfonamides to access synthetically challenging monofluorocyclopropane scaffolds. The described method offers rapid access to monofluorinated cyclopropane building blocks with further functionalization opportunities to deliver more complex synthetic targets diastereoselectively.

An investigation of the properties and reactivity of fluoromethylsulfonium salts resulted in the redesign of the reagents for fluoromethylene transfer chemistry. The model reaction, fluorocyclopropanation of nitrostyrene, turned out to be a suitable platform for the discovery of more streamlined fluoromethylene transfer reagents. The incorporation of halides on one aryl ring increased the reactivity, and 2,4-dimethyl substitution on the other aryl ring provided a balance between the reactivity/crystallinity of the reagent as well as the atom economy. The utility of new reagents was demonstrated by the development of an efficient fluorocyclopropanation protocol to access a range of monofluorinated cyclopropane derivatives.