Acid amplifiers derived from a certain class of sulfonates suffer from autocatalytic decomposition in the presence of a strong acid to give corresponding sulfonic acid, which catalyze the composition of the parent sulfonates, leading to the liberation of more of the same sulfonic acids in an exponential manner. In this research we synthesized and evaluated 4-hydroxy-4'-(2-trifluoromethyl)benzenesulfonyloxy isopropylidene dicyclohexane (1), 4,4'-di-(2-trifluoromethyl)benzenesulfonyloxy isopropylidene dicyclohexane (2), 4-hydroxy-4'-(3-trifluoromethyl)benzenesulfonyloxy isopropylidene dicyclohexane (3) and 4,4-di-(3-trifluoromethyl)benzenesulfonyloxy isopropylidene dicyclohexane (4) as novel acid amplifiers with electron withdrawing group. These acid amplifiers (1-4) showed reasonable thermal stability for resist processing temeprature and exhibited higher photosensitivity compared to poly(tert-butyl methacrylate) film without acid amplifiers. Application of acid amplifiers to photofunctional materials, including photoresists, are described as a consequence of the combination of the acid amplifiers with photoacid generator.