2,4,6-Trifluoropyridine was diiodinated with a mixture of potassium iodide and periodic acid in sulfuric acid at 55 °C to give 2,4,6-trifluoro-3,5-diiodopyridine in 85% yield. Both the starting trifluoropyridine and its 3,5-diiodo derivative readily react with excess sodium azide in dimethyl sulfoxide at room temperature to afford 2,4,6-triazidopyridine and 2,4,6-triazido-3,5-diiodopyridine in high yields. In the 15 N NMR spectra of the triazides, the N α atoms of the α-and γ-azido groups show very differing chemical shifts, which indicates the different reactivity of these groups in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, phosphorylation, reduction, thermolysis, and photolysis reactions.2,4,6-Triazidopyridines are widely used as starting compounds in organic synthesis 1 and for the photochemical preparation of high-spin nitrenes. 2 In addition, some triazides are of interest as primary explosive materials and as precursors of nitrogen-rich carbon nanomaterials. 3 2,4,6-Triazido-3,5-dibromopyridine (2a) was the first representative of this class of compounds, obtained by triazidation of pentabromopyridine (1a) with sodium azide in dimethyl sulfoxide at room temperature in 86% yield. 4 Later, triazides 2b-h were synthesized by triazidation of the corresponding perhalogenated pyridines 1b-h, using similar protocols (Scheme 1). 5 Owing to the nonequivalence of the azido groups, such triazides underwent selective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, reduction, phosphorylation, thermolysis, and photolysis reactions to form, for example, compounds 3-6 (Scheme 2). 1 On the other hand, the photolysis of triazides 2b-d in cryogenic matrices gave the corresponding septet 2,4,6-trinitrenopyridines that were of considerable interest as models for organic molecular magnets. 2 Amongst the variations in substitution of pyridines 2a-j (Scheme 1), only triazides 2i and 2j remained unexplored. Both these triazides were considered as the most interesting model systems for photochemical studies.Triazides 2i and 2j were synthesized from commercially available 2,4,6-trifluoropyridine (7) (Scheme 3). It was reported that boiling pyridine 7 in a mixture of iodine and fuming nitric acid for 12 hours affords 3,5-diiodopyridine 8 in 55% yield. 6 However, the spectroscopic characteristics of compound 8 were not reported. Nowadays, iodination of strongly electron-deficient arenes is usually conducted using a mixture of potassium iodide, sulfuric acid, and a strong oxidative agent such as HIO 4 or H 5 IO 6 . 7 Thus, for example, diiodination of 1,3,5-trifluoro-2-nitrobenzene with mixture of potassium iodide, sulfuric acid, and periodic acid at 50 °C for 3.5 hours gave 1,3,5-trifluoro-4,6-diiodo-2-nitrobenzene in 89% yield. 8 Using a similar approach, we synthesized 3,5-diiodopyridine 8 from pyridine 7 in 85% yield. Compound 8 was obtained as a white solid with mp 79 °C. Its 13 C NMR spectrum displays characteristic signals at δ = 172.3, 163.0, and 60.6, corresponding to the carbon atoms in the α-, γ-, and β-positions of the pyridine ring, respectively. In the 19 F ...