Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling of Sulfoxides

The utilization of diphenyl sulfoxides as versatile electrophilic coupling partners for the Suzuki–Miyaura reaction via C–S bond cleavage was successfully developed under palladium-N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis. The reactions showed good functional group compatibility, proceeded well under mild conditions, and provided biaryls in yields of up to 96%. A wide range of useful functional groups, such as fluoro, chloro, ether, hydroxyl, amide, cyano, keto, trimethylsilyl (TMS), and ester were tolerated under the reaction conditions; however, the use of phenylboronic anhydride and arylboronic acid pinacol esters generally would lead low yields. Good regioselectivity for the electron-poor phenyl group was achieved when unsymmetrical diphenyl sulfoxides were used. The protocol is applicable at the gram scale even with half the amount of catalyst. Density functional theory calculations were performed to investigate the reaction mechanism, indicating that the reaction occurred through oxidative addition, transmetalation, and reductive elimination to provide the final coupling product.