A palladium-catalyzed tandem Suzuki/C-H arylation reaction of N-aryltrifluoroacetimidoyl chlorides with arylboronic acids has been developed. A variety of 6-(trifluoromethyl)phenanthridines were prepared in moderate to excellent yields from N-(2-bromophenyl)trifluoroacetimidoyl chlorides, which can be conveniently prepared from 2-bromoaniline derivatives.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jo4007255