Trifluoroperacetic acid is primarily used as an oxidising agent.  In September 1953, the Journal of the American Chemical Society published work by William D. Emmons and Arthur F. Ferris reporting that this reagent, generated in situ, was capable of oxidising aniline to nitrobenzene.  Over the following two years, Emmons reported a preparative method for this reagent and published six further manuscripts in this journal on its applications; Emmons is remembered in part as the pioneer and developer of trifluoroperacetic acid as a laboratory reagent, which has since become useful as a reagent for many different types of synthetic reactions.
One example is the formation of the hypervalent iodine compound ,  which is used to carry out the Hofmann rearrangement under acidic conditions.  The hypervalent compound is accessible in two ways, and which is chosen usually depends on what materials are available: it can be prepared from its acetate analogue by an exchange reaction, or by reacting iodobenzene with a combination of trifluoroperacetic acid and trifluoroacetic acid: