Palladium Catalysis Enables Benzylation of α,α-Difluoroketone Enolates.

A palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative benzylation reaction of α,α-difluoroketone enolates is reported, in which the key C(α)-C(sp(3) ) bond is generated by reductive elimination from a palladium intermediate. The transformation provides convergent access to α-benzyl-α,α-difluoroketone-based products, and should be useful for accessing biological probes.