Iron(III)-Catalyzed Chlorination of Activated Arenes

A general and regioselective method for the chlorination of activated arenes has been developed. The transformation uses iron(III) triflimide as a powerful Lewis acid for the activation of N-chlorosuccinimide and the subsequent chlorination of a wide range of anisole, aniline, acetanilide, and phenol derivatives. The reaction was utilized for the late-stage mono- and dichlorination of a range of target compounds such as the natural product nitrofungin, the antibacterial agent chloroxylenol, and the herbicide chloroxynil. The facile nature of this transformation was demonstrated with the development of one-pot, tandem, iron-catalyzed dihalogenation processes allowing highly regioselective formation of different carbon-halogen bonds. The synthetic utility of the resulting dihalogenated aryl compounds as building blocks was established with the synthesis of natural products and pharmaceutically relevant targets.