Late-Stage C–H Nitration of Unactivated Arenes by Fe(NO₃)₃·9H₂O in Hexafluoroisopropanol

Abstract

Operationally simple and generally applicable arene nitration with cheap and easily accessible chemicals has been a longsought transformation in the synthetic organic community. In this work, we realized this goal with nontoxic and inexpensive Fe(NO 3 ) 3 •9H 2 O as the nitro source and easily recyclable solvent hexafluoroisopropanol as the promotor via a network of hydrogen-bonding interactions. As a result of the relative mildness and high reliability of this protocol, late-stage nitration of various highly functionalized natural products and commercially available drugs was realized.