Redox-Neutral Borylation of Aryl Sulfonium Salts via C-S Activation Enabled by Light

Org Lett. 2019 Dec 6;21(23):9688-9692. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.9b03850. Epub 2019 Nov 22.

Abstract

Reported here is a novel photoinduced strategy for the borylation of aryl sulfonium salts using bis(pinacolato)diboron as the boron source. This method exploits redox-neutral aryl sulfoniums to gain access to aryl radicals via C-S bond activation upon photoexcitation under transition-metal-free conditions. Therefore, it grants access to diverse arylboronate esters with good performance from easily available aryl sulfoniums accompanied by mild conditions, operational simplicity, and easy scalability.