Diarylcuprates for Selective Syntheses of Multifunctionalized Ketones from Thioesters under Mild Conditions

Ketones were selectively synthesized from thioesters by using diarylcuprates(I) generated in situ from copper(I) salts and aryl Grignard reagents in a 1 : 1.3–1.5 ratio under ambient temperature. During the ketone synthesis, various functional groups, such as carbonyl (ketones, esters, and amides), O-protecting groups, halogens, and heteroarenes, were tolerated to afford multifunctionalized ketones in excellent yields. This copper-mediated ketone synthesis could be applied to the synthesis of not only gluconolactone-derived ketone 6 , a synthetic intermediate in the transformation to the SGLT2 inhibitor canagliflozin, but also thiolactol 8 , a valuable synthetic intermediate for (+)-biotin. Control experiments on an isolated diphenylcuprate(I), [CuPh₂]⁻ ( 12 ), and DFT calculations revealed that this ketone synthesis proceeded by oxidative addition of the C−S bond of thioesters to [CuPh₂]⁻, while reductive elimination from the Cu^III intermediate produced the corresponding ketone and an inactive species [(RS)CuPh]⁻, the latter reacted with [CuPh]₄ ( 11 ) to regenerate the reactive diphenylcuprate(I).