Palladium-Catalyzed Thiocarbonylation of Aryl Iodides with S-Aryl Thioformates via Thioester Transfer

Herein we reported a novel approach to synthesize thioesters with S-aryl thioformates as thioester sources. The reaction proceeded at ambient temperature using widely available starting ingredients, wherein the thioester moiety was smoothly transferred to aryl iodides from S-aryl thioformates. A variety of substrates with various electronic natures were all tolerated under the reaction conditions to furnish desirable thioesters in ranges from moderate to excellent yields. The gram-scale reaction was also conducted, and there was virtually little change in chemical yield, indicating that large-scale synthesis of thioesters may be viable using this method.