New Applications of Electrophilic Aromatic C?H Activation with Metal Trifluoroacetates

New synthetic applications have been found for high oxidation state trifluoroacetato (TFA) complexes of Rh, Sn, and Ir. Highly selective oxidative carbonylation of arenes has been carried out with "Rh(TFA) 3 " catalyst under mild conditions (20-65 °C, 1 atm) to produce carboxylic acids via C-H activation. The first intermolecular electrophilic stannylation of arenes has been performed with Sn (IV) TFA species generated from Sn (II) oxide or tetraphenyltin. A new simple method has been developed for exhaustive cyclometalation of fluorinated 2-arylpyridines with Ir (III) TFA complexes to produce tricyclometalated derivatives which are among the most efficient electroluminescent materials known to date.