Long Lu

An Electrophilic Hypervalent Iodine Reagent for Trifluoromethylthiolation

[*] X. Shao, X.-Q. Wang, T. Yang, Prof. Dr. L. Lu, Prof. Dr. Q. ShenKey Laboratory of Organofluorine Chemistry, Shanghai Institute ofOrganic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences345 Lingling Road, Shanghai 200032 (China)E-mail: lulong@sioc.ac.cnshenql@sioc.ac.cn[**] The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from theNational Basic Research Program of China (2012CB821600,2010CB126103), the Key Program of Natural Science Foundation ofChina (21032006), the National Natural Science Foundation ofChina (21172245/21172244/B020304), Agro-scientific Research inthe Public Interest (201103007), the National Key TechnologiesR&D Program (2011BAE06B05), the Shanghai Scientific ResearchProgram (10XD1405200), and SIOC for financial support.Supporting information for this article is available on the WWWunder http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201209817.

Shelf-Stable Electrophilic Reagents for Trifluoromethylthiolation

Fluorine, which is the most electronegative element and has a small atomic radius, plays a key role in pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and materials sciences. One of the fluoroalkyl groups, the trifluoromethylthio group (CF3S-), has been well-recognized as an important structural motif in the design of lead compounds for new drug discovery because of its high lipophilicity (Hansch lipophilicity parameter π = 1.44) and strong electron-withdrawing properties, which could improve the drug molecules cell-membrane permeability and enhance its chemical and metabolic stability. While classic methods for the preparation of trifluoromethylthiolated compounds typically involve halogen-fluorine exchange reactions of polyhalogenomethyl thioethers or trifluoromethylation of sulfur-containing compounds under harsh reaction conditions, an alternative but more attractive strategy is direct trifluoromethylthiolation of the substrate at a late stage by employing an electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagent. Although several electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagents have been reported previously, these reagents either require a strong Lewis acid/Brønsted acid as an activator or suffer from a toxic nature or limited substrate scope. To address these problems, in late 2011 we initiated a project with the aim to develop new, shelf-stable, and highly reactive electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagents that could easily install the trifluoromethylthio group at the desired positions of the drug molecule at a late stage of drug development. Inspired by the broad reactivity of the hypervalent iodine reagent, we initially discovered a highly reactive trifluoromethylthiolating reagent, trifluoromethanesulfenate 1a. Structure-reactivity studies disclosed that the iodine atom of reagent 1a does not play an important role in this reagents reactivity. Consequently, a simplified second-generation electrophilic reagent, trifluoromethanesulfenate 1b, was developed. In parallel, we developed another shelf-stable, highly reactive electrophilic reagent with a broad substrate scope, N-trifluoromethylthiosaccharin (2). In this Account, we mainly describe our discovery of these two different types of electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagents, trifluoromethanesulfenates 1a and 1b and N-trifluoromethylthiosaccharin 2. Systematic studies showed that both types of reagents are highly reactive toward a wide range of nucleophiles, yet the substrate scopes of these two different types of reagents are complementary. In particular, reagents 1a and 1b are more reliable in transition-metal-catalyzed reactions such as copper-catalyzed trifluoromethylthiolation of aryl/vinyl/alkylboronic acids and silver-catalyzed decarboxylative trifluoromethylthiolation of aliphatic carboxylic acids as well as in the organocatalytic asymmetric trifluoromethylthiolation of β-keto esters and oxindoles. Reagent 2 is more electrophilic than reagents 1a and 1b and is more efficient for direct trifluoromethylthiolation with nucleophiles such as alcohols, amines, thiols, and electron-rich arenes. The ease in preparation, broad scope, and mild reaction conditions make reagents 1a, 1b, and 2 very attractive as general reagents that allow rapid installation of the trifluoromethylthio group into small molecules.

Structure–Reactivity Relationship of Trifluoromethanesulfenates: Discovery of an Electrophilic Trifluoromethylthiolating Reagent

A family of electrophilic trifluoromethanesulfenates was prepared. Structure-reactivity relationship studies showed that the substituted groups on the aryl ring of the trifluoromethylthiolating reagent did not have an obvious influence on their reactivities. A simplified electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagent 1c was then identified that can react with a wide range of nucleophiles such as Grignard reagents, arylboronic acids, alkynes, indoles, β-ketoesters, oxindoles, and sodium sulfinates under mild reaction conditions. A variety of functional groups were tolerated under these conditions.

N-Trifluoromethylthio-dibenzenesulfonimide: A Shelf-Stable, Broadly Applicable Electrophilic Trifluoromethylthiolating Reagent

The super electrophilicity of a shelf-stable, easily prepared trifluoromethylthiolating reagent N-trifluoromethylthio-dibenzenesulfonimide 7 was demonstrated. Consistent with the theoretical prediction, 7 exhibits reactivity remarkably higher than that of other known electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagents. In the absence of any additive, 7 reacted with a wide range of electron-rich arenes and activated heteroarenes under mild conditions. Likewise, reactions of 7 with styrene derivatives can be fine-tuned by simply changing the reaction solvents to generate trifluoromethylthiolated styrenes or oxo-trifluoromethylthio or amino-trifluoromethylthio difunctionalized compounds in high yields.

Selective Palladium-Catalyzed C–F Activation/Carbon–Carbon Bond Formation of Polyfluoroaryl Oxazolines

A selective palladium-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction of polyfluorophenyl oxazolines through ortho C-F activation is described. It was found that reactions with DPPF as the ligand occurred much faster than those with other ligands. A variety of arylboronic acids including challenging functionalized arylboronic acids such as enolizable ketones, aldehyde, cyano, ester, and trifluoromethyl groups were tolerated with the reaction conditions.

N-Difluoromethylthiophthalimide: A Shelf-Stable, Electrophilic Reagent for Difluoromethylthiolation

A new, electrophilic difluoromethylthiolating reagent N-difluoromethylthiophthalimide 3 was developed. Reagent 3 can be readily synthesized in four steps from easily available starting materials phthalimide and TMSCF2H. N-difluoromethylthiophthalimide 3 is a powerful electrophilic difluoromethylthiolating reagent that allows the difluoromethylthiolation of a wide range of nucleophiles including aryl/vinyl boronic acids, alkynes, amines, thiols, β-ketoesters, and oxindoles and electron-rich heteroarenes such as indole, pyrrole, 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine, imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine, aminothiazole, isoxazole, and pyrazole under mild conditions.

Copper-Catalyzed Trifluoromethylthiolation of Primary and Secondary Alkylboronic Acids

A Cu-catalyzed trifluoromethylthiolation of primary and secondary alkylboronic acids with an electrophilic trifluoromethylthiolating reagent is described. Tolerance for a variety of functional groups was observed.

Enantioselective Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indoles with trifluoroethylidene malonates by copper-bis(oxazoline) complexes: construction of trifluoromethyl-substituted stereogenic tertiary carbon center.

An enantioselective alkylation of indoles with trifluoroethylidene malonates catalyzed by copper(II)-bis (oxazoline) complexes has been developed. The expected adducts with a stereogenic tertiary carbon center bearing a trifluoromethyl group were obtained in excellent yields (up to 99%) and ee values (up to 96% ee). The synthetic utility of this asymmetric catalytic reaction was demonstrated by the preparation of β-CF(3)-tryptophan and 4-CF(3)-β-carboline in high ee.

Enantioselective Organocatalytic Michael Addition of Aldehydes to Trifluoroethylidene Malonates

An efficient, highly enantioselective, organocatalytic Michael addition reaction of aldehydes with trifluoroethylidene malonates is described. The asymmetric reaction provided highly optically pure β-trifluoromethyl aldehydes which can be conveniently transformed into 4,4,4-trifluoromethyl butyric acid and trifluoromethyl substituted δ-lactones without loss in enantioselectivity.

Palladium-catalyzed coupling of polyfluorinated arenes with heteroarenes via C-F/C-H activation.

The first palladium-catalyzed coupling of 2-pyridyl-polyfluoroarenes and benzoxazole, thiazole, benzothiazole, benzoimidazole, oxazole or oxadiazole via a concurrent C-F/C-H activation is described. Initial mechanistic studies showed that C-F activation of perfluoroarene is likely the rate-limiting step of the catalytic cycle. This protocol provides a useful and operationally simple process to functionalized polyfluoroarenes.