A mild and effective iodination method using iodine in the presence of bis-(trifluoroacetoxy)iodobenzene

Herein is described a mild and effective iodination method using bis-(trifluoroacetoxy)iodobenzene-iodine as reagent to be applied to electron deficient heterocyclic systems (protected indoles, coumarin...). Moreover, sensitive protecting groups such as acetyl and tert-butyldimethylsilyl were found to be stable under the new iodination reaction conditions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.