Mechanochemical three-component radical sulfonamidation enabled by copper catalysis

Sulfonamides are privileged organic synthesis scaffolds, particularly in pharmaceutical and bioactive domains. Conventional synthetic strategies often rely on expensive metal cross-coupling protocols, the availability of pre-existing sulfur functionality, amine nucleophilicity, elevated reaction temperatures, and inherently unstable and expensive SO₂ surrogates. Herein, we unveil a concise, mechanochemical driven, cuprous chloride (CuCl)-catalyzed three-component protocol that involves aryl radical precursors (aryldiazonium, diaryliodonium and thianthrenium salts), with K₂S₂O₅ as a SO₂ surrogate and N-benzoyloxyamines to furnish a diverse array of sulfonamide products, including biologically active and late-stage functionalized molecules, in good to excellent yields.