Regioselective, catalytic 1,1-difluorination of enynes

Fluorinated small molecules are prevalent across the functional small-molecule spectrum, but the scarcity of naturally occurring sources creates an opportunity for creative endeavour in developing routes to access these important materials. Iodine(I)/iodine(III) catalysis has proven to be particularly well-suited to this task, enabling abundant alkene substrates to be readily intercepted by in situ-generated λ3-iodanes and processed to high-value (di)fluorinated products. These organocatalysis paradigms often emulate metal-based processes by engaging the π bond and, in the case of styrenes, facilitating fluorinative phenonium-ion rearrangements to generate difluoromethylene units. Here we demonstrate that enynes are competent proxies for styrenes, thereby mitigating the recurrent need for aryl substituents, and enabling highly versatile homopropargylic difluorides to be generated in an operationally simple manner. The scope of the method is disclosed, together with application in target synthesis (>30 examples, up to >90% yield)

Ultra-high cycling stability of poly(vinylphenothiazine) as a battery cathode material resulting from π–π interactions

Organic cathode materials are promising candidates for a new generation of “green batteries”, since they have low toxicity and can be produced from renewable resources or from oil. Especially suitable are organic redox polymers that can be reversibly oxidized and reduced. Because of their often-insulating nature, however, many redox polymers have limited rate capabilities. Their cycling stabilities, which are of high importance for the long cycle-life of a battery cell, rarely exceed 1000 cycles. Here, we present a new concept for redox polymers as cathode materials, in which the oxidized states are stabilized through π–π interactions between redox-active groups. We found that due to these interactions poly(3-vinyl-N-methylphenothiazine) showed excellent cycling stability (after 10[thin space (1/6-em)]000 cycles at a 10C rate, 93% of the initial capacity was retained) in addition to a high rate capability because of supramolecular hole transport. We propose this concept to be used in the future design of redox polymers for batteries