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Radical Chain Diversification of Alkylborons Enabled by Catechol as the Sole Activator
Jia-Xuan Bi1, Ang Chen1, Chong-Lei Ji1
1School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 200120, China.
None:
Heteroatom-containing motifs are ubiquitous in bioactive molecules and pharmaceuticals. We report an operationally simple and air-tolerant protocol for the installation of diverse heteroatom- and carbon-based functional groups from alkylboronic esters. This approach employs catechol as the sole activator, promoting boronic ester exchange, followed by thermal or catechol-mediated initiation to generate alkyl radicals, which efficiently couple with a broad range of PhSO2X reagents to build C-X bonds under ambient air.
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