Controllable Sulfoxidation and Sulfenylation with Organic Thiosulfate Salts via Dual Electron- and Energy-Transfer Photocatalysis

Sulfoxides and sulfides are two important functional groups in organic molecules, containing different valence states of sulfur. Both sulfoxidation and sulfenylation with common sulfurating reagents were successfully tuned via a facile variation of the atmosphere under photocatalyzed conditions. The sulfoxidation and sulfenylation transformations involved tandem electron-/energy-transfer and single-electron-transfer processes, respectively. Late-stage sulfoxidation for pharmaceuticals and sugar derivatives was established to be highly compatible. Divergent formal syntheses of sulfoxide/sulfide-containing marketed pharmaceuticals were switchably implemented. Gram-scale operations further demonstrated the practicability of the protocol.