Trifluoromethanesulfonic Acid Promoted Controllable Electrophilic Aromatic Nitration

In this work, we developed a facile and controllable electrophilic aromatic nitration method with commercially available 68% HNO3 as the nitrating reagent and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (HOTf) as the catalyst in hexafluoroisopropanol or under solvent-free conditions. The electrophilic nitration products of different arenes can be obtained in almost quantitative yields by tuning the loading of HOTf. The strong acidity and water absorbing property of HOTf allowed this transformation to reach completion in a short time at room temperature.