Two prominent trifluoromethylation reagent classes join forces in a bench stable hypervalent iodosulfoximine CF3 transfer agent. We report its synthesis, properties and reactivity, opening up new possibilities in trifluoromethylation chemistry.

The direct trifluoromethylation of a variety of aliphatic alcohols using a hypervalent iodosulfoximine reagent afforded the corresponding ethers in moderate to good yields (14–72 %). Primary, secondary, and even tertiary alcohols, including examples derived from natural products, underwent this transformation in the presence of catalytic amounts of zinc bis(triflimide). Typical reaction conditions involved a neat mixture of 6.0 equivalents of the alcohol with 1.0 equivalent of the reagent, with the majority of reactions complete within 2 h with 2.5 mol % of the Lewis acid catalyst. Furthermore, experimental evidence was provided that the C−O bond‐forming process occurred via the coordination of the alcohol to the iodine atom and subsequent reductive elimination.