2-(Trifluoromethyl)thioxanthen-9-one (CAS number 1693-28-3) is a trifluoromethyl substituted thioxanthenone/thioxanthone, a sulfur analog of xanthone. The ketone on 2-(trifluoromethyl)thioxanthen-9-one is prone to nucleophilic reactions for molecular functionalization. Axially chiral thioxanthenes can be synthesized with this method (with organolithium compounds), exhibiting circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with dissymmetry factor of 3.0×10−3 and maximum external quantum efficiency of 20.0% in circularly polarized OLEDs. The sulfide group can be oxidized to sulfone with oxidizing agent such as hydrogen peroxide and meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid, for tuning the energy band gap of the molecule.
2-(Trifluoromethyl)thioxanthen-9-one is also desired of use as a triplet photosensitizer in photoredox catalytic reactions such as cycloaddition and nickel-catalyzed aryl esterification.