Catalytic electrophilic halogenations and haloalkoxylations by non-heme iron halides

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/adsc.201400316

Synthetic non-heme iron halides promote sub-stoichiometric aliphatic halogenation reactions via a radical mechanism. Complementary to such activity, we have developed an electrophilic halogenation of arenes employing non-heme iron halides. A catalytic version of these reactions has also been developed using potassium halide as the source of halogen atom for arenes at room temperature. Efforts towards understanding the mechanism of these catalytic halogenation reactions led to the discovery of the haloalkoxylation of olefins by a non-heme iron complex. Implications of these findings with respect to natural transformations are also discussed.