Aim and Objective: Pyrazolone sulfones have been reported to exhibit herbicidal and antibacterial activities. In spite of their good bioactivities, only a few methods have been developed to prepare pyrazolone sulfones. However, the substrate scope of these methods is limited. Moreover, the direct sulfonylation of pyrazolone by aryl sulfonyl chloride failed to give pyrazolone sulfones. Thus, developing a more efficient method to synthesize pyrazolone sulfones is very important. Materials and Method: Pyrazolone, aryl sulphonyl hydrazide, iodine, p-toluenesulphonic acid and water were mixed in a sealed tube, which was heated to 100°C for 12 hours. The mixture was cooled to 0°C and m-CPBA was added in batches. The mixture was allowed to stir for 30 min at room temperature. The crude product was purified by silica gel column chromatography to afford sulfuryl pyrazolone. Results: In all cases, the sulfenylation products were formed smoothly under the optimized reaction conditions, and were then oxidized to the corresponding sulfones in good yields by 3-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (m-CPBA) in water. Single crystal X-ray analysis of pyrazolone sulfone 4aa showed that the major tautomer of pyrazolone sulfones was the amide form instead of the enol form observed for pyrazolone thioethers. Moreover, the C=N double bond isomerized to form an α,β-unsaturated C=C double bond. Conclusion: An efficient method to synthesize pyrazolone thioethers by iodine-catalyzed sulfenylation of pyrazolones with aryl sulfonyl hydrazides in water was developed. Moreover, this method was employed to synthesize pyrazolone sulfones in one-pot by subsequent sulfenylation and oxidation reactions.

3-Sulfanyloxindoles were synthesised by triphenylphosphine-mediated transition-metal-free thiolation of oxindoles using sulfonyl chlorides as sulfenylation reagents. The above reaction was promoted by iodide anions, which was ascribed to the in situ conversion of sulfenyl chlorides into the more reactive sulfenyl iodides. Moreover, the thiolation of 3-aryloxindoles was facilitated by bases. The use of a transition-metal-free protocol, readily available reagents, and mild reaction conditions make this protocol more practical for preparing 3-sulfanyloxindoles than traditional methods.

An efficient, transition-metal-free method to synthesize pyrazolone thioethers as well as 2-aryl and 3-aryl benzofuran thioethers by employing aryl sulfonyl chlorides as sulfenylation reagents in the presence of triphenylphosphine was developed. Potassium iodide was found to facilitate the transforthation for the first time by generating more reactive sulfenyl iodide in situ from sulfenyl chloride. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An efficient, metal-free protocol used to synthesize aryl benzo[b]furan thioethers based on the I2-catalyzed cross-coupling of benzo[b]furans as well as the electrophilic cyclization of 2-alkynylphenol derivatives with aryl sulfonyl hydrazides was developed. Various 2-aryl and 3-aryl benzo[b]furan thioethers were obtained in moderate to good yields.

AbstractThe biologically and pharmaceutically important scaffolds are readily available from substituted benzofurans under conditions A).

A mild method was developed for the direct C–H iodination of 1,3-azoles catalysed by CuBr2. Compared with the traditional metalation/iodination sequences carried out with nBuLi or TMPLi (TMP=2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidino), a relatively weaker base, LiOtBu, was used in the presence of 1,10-phenanthroline. Five series of 1,3-azoles, including benzoxazole, benzothiozole, N-methyl-benzoimidazole, 5-phenyloxazole and 2-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole were tested and afforded the corresponding iodination products.