Desulfurization of Diaryl(heteroaryl) Sulfoxides with Benzyne

Org Lett. 2019 Jun 7;21(11):3986-3989. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.9b01144. Epub 2019 May 14.

Abstract

Two benzyne-enabled desulfurization reactions have been demonstrated which convert diaryl sulfoxides and heteroaryl sulfoxides to biaryls and desulfurized heteroarenes, respectively. The reaction accessing biaryls tolerates a variety of functional groups, such as halides, pseudohalides, and carbonyls. Mechanistic studies reveal that both reactions proceed via a common assembly process but divergent disassemblies of the generated tetraaryl(heteroaryl) sulfuranes.