The Arylation of α,β-Unsaturated Carbonyl Compounds by Arenediazonium Salts—A Synthetic Route to Precursors of Substituted 2-Mercaptothiazoles

This paper presents the first examples of the use of arylation products of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds under Meerwein reaction conditions for the synthesis of substituted 2-mercaptothiazoles. The method described here yields α-thiocyanatocarbonyl building blocks, which subsequently enable cyclization reactions with thiourea or mercaptoacetamides to synthesize the title compounds. In this way, 5-arylmethyl-2-mercaptothiazoles substituted at the 4-position and their S-substituted derivatives can be prepared very efficiently.