The molecule carries two very different groups: NO2 and CF3. Chemists often want to change one while keeping the other. Reduce NO2 and it becomes NH2. The CF3 group stays where it is.
That gives 3-(trifluoromethyl)aniline, a useful building block for pharmaceutical and agrochemical synthesis. Nitro-to-amine reduction is very old chemistry. But researchers recently gave it a modern twist. Instead of relying on a conventional reducing agent, they used electrochemistry.
Global Chemical Database