Light‐induced FeCl3‐catalyzed selective benzyl C−H chlorination with trifluoromethanesulfonyl chloride

Here we report a light-induced FeCl3-catalyzed approach for benzyl C-H chlorination with remarkable regioselectivity, which enables alkylbenzenes to be converted into versatile benzyl chlorides under mild conditions using trifluoromethanesulfonyl chloride (TfCl) as the chlorine source. DFT calculations show that the dynamics preference of benzylic alpha-C-H chlorination is more pronounced by employing TfCl.