Photochemical nitrene transfer reactions of iminoiodinanes with sulfoxides

Abstract

Nitrene, as an important and intriguing versatile synthon, is widely utilized for the formation of diverse nitrogenous skeletons under thermal or photochemical conditions. Typically, the N-sulfonyl nitrenes could be smoothly generated from iminoiodinanes at relatively low reaction temperatures to generate N-sulfonyl nitrenes. Herein, we described the direct immidation reaction of iminoiodinanes with sulfoxides through a blue-light-induced nitrenes transfer process. This strategy offers an efficient and gentle pathway for directly obtaining sulfoximines within a reaction time of only 10 ​min. Moreover, the reaction conditions do not necessitate the exclusion of moisture or air, rendering this photocatalytic amination reaction highly practical. A broad range of iminoiodinanes were well tolerated and reacted with sulfoxides smoothly to give the corresponding products in moderate to good yields, which provides a practical and green protocol to access N-sulfonyl architectures.