“…However, this nitration strategy has several persistent problems that are hard to overcome: (1) poor regioselectivity, especially for monosubstituted arenes, e.g., toluene, phenol, etc. ; (2) poor chemoselectivity arising from over-nitrations (for example, the electrophilic nitrations of phenol sometimes give over-nitrated products as well besides mononitrated products); (3) limited functional group and/or substrate compatibility due to the use of strongly acidic and oxidative reagents (e.g., mixed H 2 SO 4 and HNO 3 ); and (4) difficult to achieve site-regiospecific nitration against the inherent orientation rules. For example, it is hard to realize regiospecific ortho -nitration of arenes substituted with meta -directing groups (e.g., aryl ketones, aldehydes, and acids etc.…”