A simple and practical protodecarboxylation of o-nitrobenzoic acids as well as heteroaromatic carboxylic acids with various substituents via using CuI/Et3N has been established. This transformation provides a viable and low-cost approach to generating previously unavailable substituted arenes from readily accessible aryl carboxylic acids as the starting materials.

A streamlined Pd-catalyzed direct oxidative arylation of the pentafluorobenzene C–H bond with readily available (diacetoxyiodo)arenes has been described. Under the optimized conditions, three (diacetoxyiodo)arene derivatives were found to undergo coupling with pentafluorobenzene to furnish the substituted (pentafluorophenyl)benzenes in moderate to good yields.

A Pd-catalyzed direct arylation of electron-deficient polyfluoroarenes with readily available aryliodine(III) diacetates was developed with moderate to good yields. The process exhibited good functional tolerance with respect to methyl, methoxy, bromo, chloro, trifluoromethyl, cyano, and aldehyde groups. Mechanistic studies revealed this coupling involved in situ generation of aryl iodide from heating-promoted decomposition of aryliodine(III) diacetate, followed by coupling with polyfluoroarenes substrates to afford the desired products.