An overview is given of a new family of aprotic organic superelectrophiles for effective functionalizations, of alkanes and cycloalkanes. Focus is on polyhalomethanes combined with Lewis acids. Specific topics covered include polyhalomethane-SbF5-mediated transformations of alkanes and cycloalkanes, polyhalomethanes combined with aluminum halides as a novel family of aprotic organic superelectrophiles for alkane and cycloalkane transformations, and mechanistic studies of the reactions of alkanes with polyhalomethane-based superelectrophiles.