Synthesis of N,O-bidentate organic difluoroboron complexes and their photophysical studies

We disclose a novel boron trifluoride induced C-H activation and difluoroboronation at room temperature, thus providing a straightforward gateway to a series of N,O-bidentate organic BF(2) complexes. The scope of the method is demonstrated with 24 examples. All the synthesized compounds exhibit fluorescence and some of them have large Stokes shifts.