A simple economical, and highly efficient catalytic system for the synthesis of diaryl sulfides by a copper-catalysed coupling of aryl halides and thioacetate in water has been developed. A variety of aryl halides reacted with thioacetate to give the desired products in high yields up to 95%. The present catalysis protocol tolerated a wide range of functional groups, including amino, fluoro, and carboxyl moieties.
Under an oxygen atmosphere, the cross-coupling of tris(fluorinated phenyl)boroxins and disulfides catalyzed by CuI/1,10-phenanthroline were smoothly achieved to produce the corresponding asymmetric fluorinated arylsulfides in good-to-excellent yields.