Conjugate hydrotrifluoromethylation of α,β-unsaturated acyl-oxazolidinones: synthesis of chiral fluorinated amino acids.

A novel conjugate hydrofluoroalkylation of α,β-unsaturated acyl-oxazolidinones is described. Using this method, enantiomerically pure β-trifluoromethylated amino acids were prepared. Trifluorovaline and trifluoroisoleucine were incorporated into peptides and found to show extremely low α-helix propensities.