Facile conversion of CF3-containing propargylic alcohol derivatives via the corresponding allenes

Empirical information on the acidity of the propargylic proton from our previous work allowed us to develop novel synthetic transformations of readily available terminally trifluoromethylated propargylic alcohols 1 into the corresponding allenyl tosylates 3a, 1-tosyloxy- or 1-acyloxy-4,4,4-trifluorobutan-2-ones 4, and 2-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)prop-2-en-1-ones 5, which was enabled by such common bases as NaOH and tertiary amines for affecting ready abstraction of this proton.