Cyclic trimeric perfluoro-o-phenylenemercury: a highly efficient phase transfer catalyst for nitration of aromatic substrates with dilute nitric acid

A new remarkable property of perfluorinated polymercuramacrocycle (o-C6F4Hg)3 (1) is described. As has been shown previously, this macrocycle is capable of readily binding various anions and neutral Lewis bases to form complexes having unusual sandwich, pyramidal and bipyramidal structures. Now, the ability of 1 to catalyse the phase transfer nitration of aromatic substrates with dilute nitric acid in the presence of NaNO2 as an initiator and NaCl as a promotor is reported.