Successful fluorine-containing herbicide agrochemicals

•This review highlights that around 25% of all commercial herbicides contain fluorine.•The most significant fluorine containing commercial herbicides are profiled.•Structures, modes of action and a synthetic route to each profiled herbicide are presented. Of the herbicides licensed worldwide, currently around 25% contain at least one fluorine atom and many contain multiple fluorines in the form of difluoro- and trifluoromethyl groups. Fluorine-containing compounds have made a significant contribution to the development of products for the agrochemicals industry and many organofluorine entities have found stable market positions. In this review we highlight the most important fluorinated herbicides in terms of their global use. The compounds are grouped by mode of action. A synthesis route is described for each compound although the synthesis presented may not actually be the industrial process.