Electrochemical Oxidative Cross-Coupling of Enaminones and Thiophenols to Construct C-S Bonds.

An electrochemical oxidative C(sp)-H sulfuration has been developed. Various enaminones and thiophenols were compatible, generating the desired alkenyl sulfur compounds in up to 87 % yield. This transformation proceeded smoothly under mild reaction conditions without external oxidant and transition-metal catalyst. Remarkably, thiophenols selectively coupled with enamines when substrates had other alkenyl groups. In addition, the desired products could be further transformed into a series of α-sulfur isoxazoles, which are a kind of useful heterocycles in materials and bioactive molecules.