Simple sulfinate synthesis enables C-H trifluoromethylcyclopropanation.

A simple method to convert readily available carboxylic acids into sulfinate salts by employing an interrupted Barton decarboxylation reaction is reported. A medicinally oriented panel of ten new sulfinate reagents was created using this method, including a key trifluoromethylcyclopropanation reagent, TFCS-Na. The reactivity of six of these salts towards C-H functionalization was field-tested using several different classes of heterocycles.