3,3-Difluoropyrrolidine hydrochloride (CAS number 163457-23-6) is a fluorinated pyrrolidine salt with its amine being protonated by hydrochloric acid. 3,3-Difluoropyrrolidine hydrochloride is commonly used as a building block in medicinal chemistry for introducing the fluorinated pyrrolidine via nucleophilic substitution. The fluoride substituents improve the potency of the active pharmaceutical ingredients and the permeability through the cell membranes.
While deprotonated, 3,3-difluoropyrrolidine hydrochloride can coordinate to metal centers for ferroelectric complexes. A hybrid organic-inorganic ferroelectric (3,3-difluoropyrrolidinium)2ZnCl4·H2O is synthesized from 3,3-difluoropyrrolidine showing a spontaneous polarization of 0.4 μC/cm2.