The regioexhaustive functionalization of difluorophenols and trifluorophenols through organometallic intermediates

2,4-Difluorophenol, 2,5-difluorophenol, 2,3-difluorophenol, 3,5-difluorophenol, 3,4-difluorophenol, 2,4,5-trifluorophenol and 2,3,4-trifluorophenol were converted into all 18 possible di- or trifluorinated hydroxybenzoic acids, all of them new compds. The phenolic hydrogen atom was replaced by a methoxymethyl or, less frequently, by a triisopropylsilyl group, which exerted an ortho activating or ortho shielding effect, resp. Sites flanked by two electroneg. substituents (fluorine, alkoxy) were deprotonated with particular ease. They had to be silenced by the reversible attachment of a metalation-blocking trimethylsilyl group or of a metalation-deflecting chlorine atom if the metal was to be introduced elsewhere. In all cases but one, the stage was thus set for an intramol. competition between metalation at an oxygen-adjacent or a fluorine-adjacent site. It proved indeed possible to secure the desired regioflexibility in either way by relying on an appropriate substrate-reagent matching. This demonstrates once more the potential of the organometallic approach to diversity-oriented synthesis. [on SciFinder (R)]