Reductive defluorination of fluoroalkanes

The reaction of an excess of lithium powder and a catalytic amount of DTBB with primary, secondary and tertiary fluoroalkanes in the presence of a substoichiometric amount of 1,2-bis(trimethylsilyl)benzene afforded the corresponding alkanes resulting from a fluorine–hydrogen exchange. The method could be extended to non-geminal difluorides. The effect of the disilylated compound in the naphthalene-catalysed lithiation of fluorobenzene and benzyl fluoride was also studied.