Friedel–Crafts Reactivity with Sulfondiimidoyl Fluorides for the Synthesis of Heteroaryl Sulfondiimines

Sulfur functional groups are ubiquitous in molecules used in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, and within these collections sulfones hold a prominent position. The double aza-analogues of sulfones, sulfondiimines, offer significant potential in discovery chemistry but to date their applications have been limited by the lack of convenient synthetic routes. The existing methods mainly rely on imination of low-valent-sulfur intermediates, or the combination of pre-formed organometallic reagents and electrophilic S(VI)-functionalities. Herein, we describe a Friedel-Crafts-type reaction of sulfondiimidoyl fluorides with (hetero)aryls. This new SuFEx reactivity benefits from broad functional group tolerance, mild reaction conditions, and does not require the use of pre-formed organometallic reagents. The efficient use of unprotected indoles and pyrroles, as well as furan, thiophene and carbocyclic aromatics, further demonstrates the advantages of these reactions. We show that the reactivity of the sulfondiimidoyl fluorides can be tuned by switching the N-substituents, allowing an expansion of the range of coupling partners. The utility of the transformation is exemplified by the synthesis of the sulfondiimine analogue of the HIV-I reverse transcriptase-inhibitor L-737,126.