Trifluoromethylthiolation Carbonylation of Unactivated Alkenes via Distal Migration

Org Lett. 2024 Nov 29;26(47):10189-10194. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.4c04151. Epub 2024 Nov 20.

Abstract

Sulfur-containing compounds represent a significant category of organic compounds, and the introduction of sulfur groups into organic compounds can effectively enhance their biological activity and synthetic diversity. Although a variety of difunctionalization reactions of alkenes based on sulfur radicals have been documented, significant challenges remain in the carbonylative difunctionalization of unactivated alkenes by the addition of a sulfur radical. Herein, we present a trifluoromethylthiolative carbonylation reaction of unactivated alkenes, which goes through the addition of a trifluoromethylthiol radical to unactivated alkenes and then carbonylation of the newly generated carbon radical intermediate. A heterocyclic/aryl migration in the presence of carbon monoxide is crucial for the success of this methodology and finally resulted in the formation of sulfur-containing carbonylated products in good yields.