Iodine‐Mediated Cross‐Dehydrogenative Coupling of Heterocyclic Thiols with Amines: An Easy and Practical Formation of S−N Bond

Visible Light-Induced Synthesis of Sulfenamides via Oxidative Coupling of Amines with Thiols

Herein, we report a visible light-induced synthesis of sulfenamides via the oxidative coupling of amines with thiols using O2 as an oxidant. The photoreaction was conducted under simple and mild conditions, without any photocatalysts, metals, or additives. Detailed mechanistic studies revealed that a sulfur radical is generated through a single-electron transfer from an in situ-generated sulfur anion to O2 under visible light irradiation. This radical intermediate couples to form disulfide, which subsequently undergoes aminolysis to produce sulfenamides.

Thiosuccinimide enabled S-N bond formation to access N-sulfenylated sulfonamide derivatives with synthetic diversity

A thiosuccinimide enabled S-N cross-coupling strategy has been established for the intermolecular N-sulfenylation of clinically approved sulfa drugs under additive-free conditions. This approach features simple operation, high chemoselectivity for sulfenylating the phenylamino group of sulfonamides, wide substrate scope, and easy scale production, affording N-sulfenylated products in moderate to excellent yields (up to 90%). In addition, we also found that this transformation can be realized in a one-pot manner by employing readily available thiols as starting materials, and the obtained sulfonamide derivatives are capable of various late-stage functionalizations, including oxidation, arylation, benzylation, and methylation.

Selective oxidative β-C-H bond sulfenylation of tetrahydroisoquinolines with elemental sulfur

In this article, a convenient and efficient KIO₃-promoted oxidative sulfenylation at the β-position of tetrahydroisoquinolines and subsequent aromatization in the presence of elemental S₈ is presented. The reaction proceeds with moderate to good yields via a double C-S formation process. A wide range of structurally diverse 4-sulfenylisoquinolines/3-sulfenylpiperidine were synthesized with excellent functional group tolerance and high efficiency.