Hu Liang, Wang Dadian, Chen Xiang, Yu Lin, Yu Yongqi, Tan Ze, Zhu Gangguo
State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, P. R. China.
Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, 688 Yingbin Road, Jinhua 321004, P. R. China.
Org Biomol Chem. 2017 Jul 21;15(27):5674-5679. doi: 10.1039/c7ob01315a. Epub 2017 Jun 27.
A novel copper-catalyzed decarboxylative methylthiolation of arenecarboxylate salts has been realized using DMSO as the methylthiolation source. Various potassium aryl carboxylates underwent decarboxylative methylthiolation under air to furnish the corresponding aryl methyl thioethers in moderate to excellent yields. The reaction tolerated a wide variety of functional groups. Notably, the synthesis of ethylthioethers was also successfully achieved directly from diethyl sulfoxide under similar reaction conditions.