Benzyl thioether formation merging copper catalysis

Abstract

A novel copper-catalyzed thioetherification reaction has been developed to afford benzyl thioethers in moderate to excellent yields. Under the mild and easy-to-operate conditions, a variety of thioethers are efficiently prepared from readily available benzyl alcohols (primary, secondary, and tertiary) and thiols in the presence of Cu(OTf)₂ as the Lewis acid catalysis. This C–S bond formation protocol furnishes exceptional chemoselectivity, and the preliminary mechanism studies show that the reaction should proceed through a Lewis-acid-mediated S_N1-type nucleophilic attack of the carbocations formed in situ.