A novel and efficient palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling benzylation reaction of pentafluorobenzene through selective C−H functionalization has been developed. A series of carbonates and polyfluorobenzenes have been examined and found to give moderate to good yields. This transformation provides a new straightforward approach for the synthesis of fluorinated diarylmethanes.

A highly efficient and simple procedure was developed to synthesize substituted fluorinated nitriles and diaryl ketones under mild conditions from polyfluorobenzenes and phenylacetonitriles. This coupling process was achieved by using a selective C–F bond functionalization without a transition-metal catalyst. The reactions had good functional group tolerance and provided the products in moderate to excellent yields.

A facile and efficient one-pot, two-step synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted 3-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)-2H-isoindoles through Ugi four-component reaction/AgNO₃-catalyzed reaction of 2-alkynylbenzaldehydes, amines, isonitriles, and Me₃SiN₃ is described. This transformation proceeds through 5-exo-dig cyclization, [1,3]-H shift, and [1,5]-H shift to generate the products in moderate to excellent yields.

A one-pot two-step synthesis of N-(imidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-3-yl)sulfonamides from easily available arylglyoxal hydrates, 2-aminopyridines, and sulfonamides has been developed. The procedure, using zinc chloride as catalyst, is simple and inexpensive. The desired products were obtained in moderate to good yields under the optimized reaction conditions.

An efficient, economical and easy method for the synthesis of dimethylaminomethylenediphosphonates using bis(trichloromethyl) carbonate and RCONR¹R² has been developed, which proceeded under relatively mild conditions.