Electrochemical Direct α-Arylation of Alkylamines with Sulfonylarenes

Org Lett. 2023 Sep 15;25(36):6682-6687. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.3c02535. Epub 2023 Sep 7.

Abstract

The electrochemical α-arylation of alkylamines with sulfonylarenes has been developed. Here, diverse trialkylamines and aryl(dimethyl)amines are applicable to the α-arylation with sulfonylarenes having an azole, azine, and benzene nucleus. The α-arylation was scaled up using an electrolysis flow cell. Mechanistic studies show that anodic oxidation of an alkylamine with a sulfinate as a mediator followed by deprotonation gives an α-aminoalkyl radical, which undergoes homolytic aromatic substitution (HAS) on a sulfonylarene to give the corresponding α-arylalkylamine.