Brønsted Acid-Catalyzed Regioselective Hydrothiolation of Dienes: Solvent-Controlled Divergent Synthesis of Sulfides

Org Lett. 2021 Oct 15;23(20):8028-8032. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.1c03043. Epub 2021 Oct 7.

Abstract

A Brønsted acid-catalyzed 1,4-addition hydrothiolation of branched 1,3-dienes was explored for the first time. A solvent-controlled divergent synthesis of sulfides is also disclosed. Use of acetonitrile as a solvent gave allylic sulfides as hydrothiolation products, while thiochromane derivatives (hydrothiolation/Friedel-Crafts products) were obtained using dichloromethane as the solvent. The origin of the regioselectivity of hydrothiolation was explored through density functional theory calculations.