Visible-Light-Mediated Divergent and Regioselective Vicinal Difunctionalization of Styrenes with Arylazo Sulfones

Org Lett. 2023 Dec 22;25(50):9047-9052. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.3c03786. Epub 2023 Dec 12.

Abstract

Activated by visible light, arylazo sulfones can serve as multifaceted reactants and are employed in diazenylation, sulfonylation, and arylation reactions under (photo)catalyst-free conditions. Such versatile reactivity enabled us to develop an operationally simple, regioselective, and tunable difunctionalization of styrenes with arylazo sulfones to produce α-sulfonyl arylhydrazones and 1,2-alkoxyarylated products in moderate to excellent yields. Furthermore, such difunctionalized products have been exploited as key building blocks for the synthesis of various heterocycles.