Diverse radical C–F functionalizations of hexa- to difluoroarenes using boryl radicals as link-and-lose mediators
Yi-Feng Wang
Nature Chemistry, Published online: 22 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41557-026-02137-2 Selective C–F functionalization of polyfluoroarenes remains a considerable challenge, particularly for controlled and sequential substitution. Now it has been shown that reactivity-tunable pyridine-boryl radicals enable sequential and versatile C–F transformations through a link-and-lose pathway, allowing hydro- and deuterodefluorination, defluorinative arylation and alkylation with spectroscopic observation of key