Syntheses of Thioethers and Selenide Ethers from Anilines.

In this study, a general procedure was proposed for synthesizing thioethers and selenide ethers from anilines under solvent-free and transition-metal-free conditions. Thioethers were formed when anilines reacted with thiols under blue light-emitting-diode (LED) irradiation at room temperature without a photocatalyst. When reactions were performed using anilines and diselenides, the corresponding selenide ethers were obtained with satisfactory to excellent yields. The reaction was performed under photocatalyst-free and solvent-free conditions without blue LEDs. The advantages of this system include convenient operations, mild reaction conditions, satisfactory functional group tolerance, and late-stage selenylation of drug molecules.

CuI/Oxalic Diamide-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Thiols with Aryl Bromides and Chlorides.

We report a general copper-catalyzed cross-coupling of thiols with aryl halides by using N-aryl-N'-alkyl oxalic diamide (L3) or N,N'-dialkyl oxalic diamide (L5) as the ligand. Both aryl and alkyl thiols can be coupled with unactivated aryl bromides and chlorides to give the desired products in good yields. Furthermore, this system features a broad substrate scope and good tolerance of functional groups. Importantly, the oxalic diamides are stable and can be prepared easily from commercially available and cheap starting materials.