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Journal Name
ChemComm
DOI: 1C0.O10M39M/CU5CNCI0C0A8T75IOA N
those bearing electronꢀwithdrawing substituents, such as nitryl preparation of other useful sulfurꢀcontaining compounds are still
3e), cyano (3f). Gratifyingly, diverse functional groups, underway in our laboratory.
including halides (3b 3c and 3d), cyano (3f), acetyl (3g), ester The work was supported by the “Hundred Talents Program” of
3h), nitro (3e), alkyl (3i) and alkoxy (3j), were very well Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), the NSFC (21202027), the
(
,
(
tolerated under the optimal reaction condition, furnishing the NCET (NCETꢀ12ꢀ0145), and the “Technology Foundation for
desired products in generally moderate to excellent yields. Selected Overseas Chinese Scholar” of Ministry of Human
However, thioanisoles containing an active hydrogen atom such Resources and Social Security of China (MOHRSS).
as OH, NH2, or aldehyde did not undergo the same reactions
( , 3t and 3u). Furthermore, the position of attached
3s
substituent groups on the phenyl ring did not affect the
efficiency of this transformation (3b 3l and 3m). In addition to Interdisciplinary Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080,
Notes and references
Institute of Organic Chemistry, The Academy of Fundamental and
,
P. R. China. Tel: +86ꢀ451ꢀ86403860; Eꢀmail: lshi@hit.edu.cn
Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI) available: Detailed
synthetic procedures and characterization of new compounds. See
DOI: 10.1039/c000000x/
monoꢀsubstituted thioanisoles, bisꢀsubstituted thioanisole was
also compatible with this novel reaction, generating the
corresponding thiocyanate (3n) in 59% yield. It was noteworthy
†
that
a
miserable yield of 6% was observed when
1o was employed as substrate,
pentachlorothioanisole
(
)
1
(a) A. D. Patil, A. J. Freyer, R. Reichwein, B. Carte, L. B. Killmer, L.
Faucette, R. K. Johnson and D. J. Faulkner, Tetrahedron Lett., 1997, 38,
363−364; (b) S. Dutta, H. Abe, S. Aoyagi, C. Kibayashi and K. S. Gates,
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 15004−15005; (c) A. T. Pham, T. Ichiba,
W. Y. Yoshida, P. J. Scheuer, T. Uchida, J.ꢀI. Tanaka and T. Higa,
Tetrahedron Lett., 1991, 32, 4843−4846; (d) I. C. Piña, J. T. Gautschi,
G.ꢀY.ꢀS. Wang, M. L. Sanders, F. J. Schmitz, D. France, S. Cornellꢀ
Kennon, L. C. Sambucetti, S. W. Remiszewski, L. B. Perez, K. W. Bair
and P. Crews, J. Org. Chem., 2003, 68, 3866−3873.
possibly due to its poor solubility in acetonitrile. Besides the
substituted thioanisole derivatives, the reactions of 2ꢀ
(methylthio)thiophene (1q), and 2ꢀ(methylthio)pyridine (1r)
with 3,5ꢀdi(trifluoromethyl)phenyl(cyano)iodonium triflate (2b
)
under standard condition were also investigated, and the desired
thiocyanate products 3q and 3r were obtained in 68% and 22%
yields, respectively. Finally, we also detected this reaction with
alkyl thioethers under the standard condition, and the expected
thiocyanate (3p) could be isolated in a relatively low yield of
36%.
2
3
A. A. Newman, Chemistry and Biochemistry of Thiocyanic Acid and Its
Derivatives, Academic Press, London, 1975.
(a) J. Houk and G. M. Whitesides, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1987, 109,
6825−6836; (b) L. Linderoth, P. Fristrup, M. Hansen, F. Melander, R.
Madsen, T. L. Andresen and G. H. Peters, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131,
12193−12200.
4
5
(a) Z. Pakulski, D. Pierożyński and A. Zamojski, Tetrahedron, 1994, 50,
2975−2992; (b) I. W. J. Still and F. D. Toste, J. Org. Chem., 1996, 61,
7677−7680; (c) F. Ke, Y. Qu, Z. Jiang, Z. Li, D. Wu and X. Zhou, Org.
Lett., 2011, 13, 454−457.
(a) K. R. Prabhu, A. R. Ramesha and S. Chandrasekaran, J. Org. Chem.,
1995, 60, 7142−7143; (b) D. Sengupta and B. Basu, Tetrahedron Lett.,
2013, 54, 2277−2281.
Scheme 3 Proposed mechanism for the reaction.
6
7
T. Billard, S. Large and B. R. Langlois, Tetrahedron Lett., 1997, 38,
65−68.
On the basis of a previous report by Sanford and coꢀworkers,16
a
(a) R. Riemschneider, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1956, 78, 844–847; (b) R.
possible mechanism is depicted in Scheme 2. Initially, the oxidation
of thioethers with aryl(cyano)ꢀiodonium triflates gives rise to the
corresponding sulfonium salts A and aryl iodides. After subsequent
nucleophilic substitution of A with triflate (OTfꢀ), the expected
thiocyanate products could be released with alkyl triflate as
byproduct to finish the reaction. To prove our mechanistic
hypothesis, we repeated the model reaction (Table 1, entry 6), and to
our delight, the existence of MeOTf (R2 = Me) and 1ꢀiodoꢀ3,5ꢀ
bis(trifluoromethyl)benzene could been observed in the crude
mixture by GCꢀMS analysis. Furthermore, when the reaction of
thioanisole (1a) and 3,5ꢀdi(trifluoromethyl)phenyl(cyano)iodonium
triflate (2b) was carried out in CDCl3, we could also observe the
generation of MeOTf and 1ꢀiodoꢀ3,5ꢀbis(trifluoromethyl)benzene by
13C NMR analysis. These observations lend very strong support to
our mechanistic proposal.
Riemschneider, F. Wojahn and G. Orlick, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1951, 73,
5905–5907.
8
For a selected review, see: (a) A. W. Erian and S. M. Sherif,
Tetrahedron, 1999, 55, 7957–8024; For representative examples on
nucleophilic or electrophilic thiocyanation, see: (b) N. Sun, H. Zhang,
W. Mo, B. Hu, Z. Shen and X. Hu, Synlett, 2013, 24, 1443–1447; (c) K.
Takagi, H. Takachi and K. Sasaki, J. Org. Chem., 1995, 60, 6552–6556;
(d) I. P. Beletskaya, A. S. Sigeev, A. S. Peregudov and P. V. Petrovskii,
Mendeleev Communications, 2006, 5, 250–251; (e) B. Akhlaghinia, A.–
R. Pourali and M. Rahmani, Synth. Commun., 2012, 42, 1184–1191; (f)
M. Barbero, I. Degani, N. Diulgheroff, H. Dughera and R. Fochi,
Synthesis, 2001, 4, 585–590; (g) B. D. Grishchuk, S. I. Klimnyuk, G, Ya.
Zagrichuk, M. P. Kravchenyuk, T. S. Kolomiets and P. M. Gorbovoi,
Pharm. Chem. J, 1999, 33, 143–144; (h) K. Takagi, H. Takachi and N.
Hayama, Chem. Lett., 1992, 509–510; (i) K. Tamao, T. Kakui and M.
Kumada, Tetrahedron Lett., 1980, 21, 111–114; (j) B. R. Vaddula, R. S.
Varma and J. Leazer, E. J. Org. Chem., 2012, 6852–6855; (k) R. G. Guy,
in The Chemistry of Cyanates and Their Thio Derivatives, ed. S. Patai,
Wiley, Chichester, 1977, ch. 18; (l) Y.ꢀF. Wang, Y. Zhou, J.ꢀR. Wang, L.
Liu and Q.ꢀX. Guo, Chin. Chem. Lett., 2006, 17, 1283.
For selected examples, see: (a) B. M. Trost, W. L. Schinski, F. Chen and
I. B. Mantz, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1971, 93, 676–684; (b) Y. Q. Wu, D. C.
Limburg, D. E. Wilkinson and G. S. Hamilton, Org. Lett., 2000, 2 , 795–
797; (c) Z. Miao and J. P. Tam, Org. Lett., 2000, 2, 3711–3713; (d) I. W.
J. Still and I. D. G. Watson, Synth. Commun., 2001, 31, 1355–1359; (e)
G. Westerberg and B. Långström, Acta Chemica Scandinavica, 1993, 47,
974–978; (f) G. Pipes, A. Kosky, J. Abel, Y. Zhang, M. Treuheit and G.
Kleemann, Pharm. Res., 2005, 22, 1059–1068; (g) J. J. Kim, D. H.
Kweon, S. D. Cho, H. K. Kim, E. Y. Jung, S. G. Lee, J. R. Falck and Y.
In summary, we have developed
a
transitionꢀmetalꢀfree
transformation of readily available thioethers into the corresponding
thiocyanates through the Csp3−S bond cleavage. This process
features relatively broad substrate scopes, lessꢀtoxic hypervalent
iodine reagents, mild operating conditions, excellent functional
group compatibilities, and affords various thiocyanates in moderate
to good yields. Notably, this protocol is not only complementary to
existing methods of thiocyanate formation, but also offers an
opportunity to extend the applications of lessꢀtoxic hypervalent
iodine reagents in organic synthesis. Further investigations on
related reactions involving hypervalent iodine reagents for the
9
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