Regio- and chemoselectivity in S- and O- difluoromethylation reactions using diethyl (bromodifluoromethyl)phosphonate

•Simple procedure using a commercial reagent provides effective difluoromethylations of various S- and O- nucleophiles.•This method is well fitted to the difluoromethylation of aliphatic thiols.•The reactions efficiency is dependent on the pKa value of the nucleophilic center and its polarizability.•Access to high chemo- and regioselective difluoromethylations of substrates having multiple nucleophilic centers.