The path of nucleophilic fluoroalkylation reaction of propylene oxide with
PhSO2CYF- (Y=F,H, and PhSO2, respectively) in gas phase and in Et2O
solvent were studied theoretically. The nucleophilic fluoroalkylation of
propylene oxide with fluorinated carbanions was probed by the reactivity
comparison between (benzenesulfonyl)monofluoromethyl anion (PhSO2CHF-),
(benzenesulfonyl) difluoromethyl anion (PhSO2CF2-), and
bis(benzenesul-fonyl) monofluoromethyl anion ((PhSO2)2CF-). The
nucleophilicity reactivity order of PhSO2CYF- (Y = F, H, and PhSO2) is
[(PhSO2)2CF-] > PhSO2CHF- > PhSO2CF2-, which indicates that introducing
another electron-withdrawing benzenesulfonyl group is an effective way to
significantly increase the nucleophilicity of the fluorinate carbanions. For
comparison, we also studied the nucleophilic addition reactions of propylene
oxide with chlorine substituted carbanion PhSO2CHCl-. The calculated results
show that the nucleophilicity of PhSO2CYF- is better than that of PhSO2CHCl-
for the ring opening reaction with propylene oxide. The calculated results
are in good agreement with the available experiments.