COS-triggered oxygen/sulfur exchange of isatins: chemoselective synthesis of functionalized isoindigos and spirothiopyrans via self-condensation and the thio-Diels–Alder reaction

Herein, we present the first organocatalytic oxygen/sulfur atom exchange reaction (O/S ER) of isatins by employing carbonyl sulfide (COS) as a novel sulfuring reagent under mild reaction conditions. 8-Diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) exhibited excellent activity in this approach. Remarkably, the chemical transformations of in situ generated 3-thioisatins can be tuned via the judicious choice of reaction solvents in a one pot process, enabling the selective formation of either functionalized isoindigos in CH3CN via a self-condensation process or spirothiopyrans in DMSO in the presence of conjugated dienes via the thio-Diels-Alder reaction. Mechanistic studies with experimental and density functional theory approaches revealed that the O/S ER between isatins and COS results in the formation of 3-thioisatins as the key intermediates, which further undergo solvent-controlled transformations to generate isoindigos or spirothiopyrans, respectively. The easily-accessible substrates and operational simplicity make the process suitable for further exploration. The practicality of this transformation was demonstrated by the gram-scale synthesis of isoindigo-based drug molecules and donor-acceptor conjugated polymers.