Upon treating 2 using the optimized reaction conditions (Table ), the reaction furnished 3, indicating that 2 is a possible reaction intermediate. We also found that in the absence of a base, the conversion of 2 was only 27%. This low conversion stands in stark contrast to the reaction of 1 in the absence of a base (Table , entry 9), which led to the complete consumption of the starting material. In their entirety, these results indicate that K3PO4 plays a pivotal role in the homobenzylic hydrodefluorination of 2. There are two possible scenarios for the transformation of homobenzylic C(sp 3 )-F bonds starting from 2 (Figure ). Path A is a stepwise process via alkene intermediates.