The substance is 3,4-diflurothiophene, CAS # 19259-15-5. Let there be no confusion; the compound is small, but the picture is big.

When you look in the literature, you find

A lot of computational chemistry Some who magically had it as a starting material One or two lengthy preparations and miserable atom economy

Long story [...]

To the best of my knowledge, only once before have I resorted to posting a lolcat. In a feeble attempt to properly wrap up year two of Synthetic Remarks (Volume 2), here we go again. I give you:

Yay, I did live to see it! The very reaction I requested here, a little more than a year ago. Check out this fantastico, shmantastico cross-coupling, in the latest issue of the best journal on Earth:

Org. Lett. 2012, ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ol3029109)

Do you see what I [...]

(The questions were collected in this previous post, and my first 5 answers were posted here.)

6. Michael Barclay: “What do you think about chemistry Nobel prizes going to more biologically related fields? A detriment to our subject or an example of how chemistry can cross a variety of fields?”

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