Facile In Situ Difluoromethylation of Phenols and Thiols Using Ethyl Bromodifluoroacetate and K2CO3

Herein, we report an efficient method to access difluoro-methyl ethers of thiols and phenols using ethyl bromodifluoroacetateand K2CO3. This method demonstrates chemoselective difluoromethyl-ation of thiols and phenols in the presence of amines. The current method also discloses the synthesis of bis(aryloxy) fluoromethane compounds which are least reported in the literature. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the reaction proceeds through a nucleophilic substitution pathway. We strongly believe this protocol would offer an efficient alternative to earlier photocatalyzed or radical-mediated difluoromethylation methods and it has a great potential in the scale-up of pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates that possess difluoro-methyl group.