Electrochemical strategies for N-alkylation and N-acylation of NH-sulfoximines via the decarboxylation and deoxygenation of carboxylic acids

Abstract

The functionalization of NH-sulfoximines to construct N–C bonds from common carboxylic acids remains underdeveloped. Herein, electrochemical strategies were utilized to enable the chemoselective decarboxylation or deoxygenation of carboxylic acids for the synthesis of N-alkyl and N-acyl sulfoximines. The advantages of these methods include mild reaction conditions, no electrode sacrifice, no external oxidants or metal catalysts, and easy scalability to gram-scale production. Furthermore, 67 diverse sulfoximine derivatives, particularly those incorporating motifs from amino acids and drug molecules, were obtained.