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Updated: Jul 9, 2025

Efficient Synthesis of All-Carbon Quaternary Centers via the Conjugate Addition of Functionalized Monoorganozinc Bromides
Published on: May 26, 2019
A general copper-catalysed enantioconvergent C(sp3)-S cross-coupling via biomimetic radical homolytic substitution
Yu Tian1,2, Xi-Tao Li1,3, Ji-Ren Liu1,4
1Shenzhen Grubbs Institute and Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
Abstract:
Although α-chiral C(sp3)-S bonds are of enormous importance in organic synthesis and related areas, the transition-metal-catalysed enantioselective C(sp3)-S bond construction still represents an underdeveloped domain probably due to the difficult heterolytic metal-sulfur bond cleavage and notorious catalyst-poisoning capability of sulfur nucleophiles. Here we demonstrate the use of chiral tridentate anionic ligands in combination with Cu(I) catalysts to enable a biomimetic enantioconvergent radical C(sp3)-S cross-coupling reaction of both racemic secondary and tertiary alkyl halides with highly transformable sulfur nucleophiles. This protocol not only exhibits a broad substrate scope with high enantioselectivity but also provides universal access to a range of useful α-chiral alkyl organosulfur compounds with different sulfur oxidation states, thus providing a complementary approach to known asymmetric C(sp3)-S bond formation methods. Mechanistic results support a biomimetic radical homolytic substitution pathway for the critical C(sp3)-S bond formation step.
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