Trifluoroacetic acid as an efficient catalyst promoting the Dakin-West reaction at ambient temperature is reported for the first time in this paper. A few efficacious auxiliary catalysts were also developed for the Dakin-West reaction. A variety of substituted aryl aldehydes and aryl ketones were found to be applicable to the preparation of some new b-acetamido-b-arylpropiophenones. This procedure has several advantages such as high yields, short reaction time, and smaller amount (0.30 mol%) of catalyst.