Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Arylation of -Bromo Sulfoxide

A nickel-catalyzed cross-electrophile coupling of aryl iodides with alpha-bromo sulfoxide to access a diverse array of aryl benzyl sulfoxides has been discovered. These reactions occurred under mild conditions with excellent functional group tolerance so that optically enriched sulfoxides could be coupled with aryl iodides, generating corresponding sulfoxides with excellent stereochemical integrity. Furthermore, the scalability of this transformation was demonstrated. Initial mechanistic studies revealed that the reaction undergoes a radical pathway.