Axially chiral allenes are valuable motifs in natural products and chiral ligands in asymmetric catalysis, yet methods to access enantioenriched difluoromethylated analogues remain undeveloped. Here we report the efficient copper-catalyzed SN2'-type substitution of propargylic alcohol derivatives with Zn(CF2H)2(DMPU)2, to deliver enantioenriched difluoromethylated allenes under mild conditions. This transformation proceeds with high regioselectivity, a broad substrate scope, and operational simplicity, providing a general strategy to construct CF2H-substituted chiral allenes of potential relevance to drug discovery.
Chen et al. (2026) studied this question.