An efficient chlorination of aromatic compounds using a catalytic amount of iodobenzene

An efficient method was developed for chlorination of aromatic compounds with electron-donating groups using iodobenzene as the catalyst and m-chloroperbenzoic acid as the terminal oxidant in the presence of 4-methylbenzenesulfonic acid in THF at room temperature for 24 h, and a series of the monochlorinated compounds was obtained in good yields. In this protocol, the catalyst iodobenzene was first oxidized into the hypervalent iodine intermediate, which then treated with lithium chloride and finally reacted with aromatic compounds to form the chlorinated compounds. (C) 2013 lie Yan. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.