An environmentally benign and highly efficient procedure has been developed for the direct one-pot synthesis of beta-hydroxysulfides in good yields under neutral conditions from alkenes and thiophenols in the presence of aerial oxygen using beta-cyclodextrin in water. This protocol tolerates a wide variety of functional groups or substrates and does not require the use of either acid or base catalysts. beta-Cyclodextrin can be recovered and reused for a number of runs without any loss of activity.
Solvent-mediated switching between oxidative addition and addition–oxidation: access to β-hydroxysulfides and β-arylsulfones by the addition of thiols to olefins in the presence of Oxone
The reaction between aryl olefins and thiols in the presence of Oxone in toluene–water (9 : 1, v/v) affords β-hydroxy-2-arylethyl aryl sulfides smoothly by the interception of intermediary thiyl radicals with aryl olefins; the former are generated by the oxidation of thiols with Oxone in a biphasic medium. However, the change of the solvent system to acetonitrile–water facilitates a nonradical and