-Supporting Information- A novel catalytic process for trifluoromethylation of bromoaromatic compounds Bhupesh S. Samant* and George W. Kabalka Division of Pharmaceutical chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, 6140. * Corresponding author. Fax: +27-46-636-1205; tel: +27-46-603-8395; e-mail: B.Samant@ru.ac.za; bhupesh.samant@gmail.com Materials. 1-Bromo-naphthalene, para-bromo-phenol, ortho-bromo-phenol, ortho-bromo-aniline, para-bromo- aniline, 1-bromo-3-methyl-4-nitrobenzene, 9-bromo-anthracene, (CH 3 ) 3 SiCF 3 and CsF were purchased from Aldrich Co. 4-Bromo-2-phenyl-aniline was obtained from Interchim Co. Anhydrous toluene (with molecular sieves and septum), Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) (electrophoretic grade) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) (electrophoretic grade) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich Co. The purity of these surfactants was ascertained tensiometrically. [CinnamylPdCl] 2 was prepared as described previously, S1 and stored at –20 °C. Cyclohexyl BrettPhos was prepared according to literature procedure. S2 All other reagents from commercial sources were used as received. All reactions were performed under an atmosphere of argon. Flash chromatography was performed with Merck silica gel 60 (230-400 mesh ASTM). General procedure for trifluoromethylation. 1-Bromonaphthalene (207 mg, 1.00 mmol, 1 eq), cyclohexyl BrettPhos (6.40 mg, 0.012 mmol, 10 mol%), (cinnamylPdCl) 2 (10.4 mg, 0.02 mmol, 2 mol%), (CH 3 ) 3 SiCF 3 (0.228 mL, 2.00 mmol, 2 eq) and CsF (304 mg, 2.00 mmol, 2 eq) were added to a SDS (60 mmol) toluene (10 mL) solution the mixture was agitated for 6 hr under an argon atmosphere in a 50 cm 3 baffled glass reactor equipped with a six-blade turbine agitator of 0.3 cm diameter. The speed of agitation was maintained at 1.67 Hz. Isothermal conditions were maintained at 110 °C. After cooling to room temperature, a solution of CTAB (60 mM) in toluene (5 mL) solution was added to the reaction mixture which was agitated for an additional 10 min. The mixture was filtered through a plug of Celite, the fiiltrate concentrated under reduced pressure, and then purified by flash chromatography on silica gel using hexane to give the 1-(trifluoromethyl)naphthalene as a colorless oil; yield: 173 mg (88% yield). The experiments were performed in replicates of three. The variation in the results from the reported average values was within  0.75 %. 1 Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Chemical Communications This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011