A new general and easily installable silicon-tethered pyridyl-containing directing group (PyDipSi) that allows for highly efficient and regioselective Pd-catalyzed ortho C-H acyloxylation of arenes has been developed. It has also been demonstrated that this directing group can efficiently be removed as well as converted into a variety of other valuable functional groups. In addition, the installation of the PyDipSi directing group along with pivaloxylation and quantitative conversion of the PyDipSi group into a halogen functionality represents a formal three-step ortho oxygenation of haloarenes.
