Michael Willis (@rhpdcu.bsky.social)

Matt's work on the iron-catalyzed synthesis of sulfinamides from carboxylic acids is online at Organic Letters. The chemistry uses alkyl carboxylic acids, commercial sulfinylamine reagents, and simple iron salts such as iron nitrate as catalysts. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

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Iron-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Sulfinylation of Alkyl Carboxylic Acids Sulfinamides, sulfonamides, and sulfonimidamides are valuable motifs in medicinal chemistry, yet methods to synthesize alkyl variants from simple, readily available feedstocks remain scarce. In this report, we detail the synthesis of these three distinct sulfur functional groups, using readily available and structurally diverse alkyl carboxylic acids as the starting materials. The method harnesses alkyl radical generation from carboxylic acids using commercial iron salts and visible light irradiation, in combination with commercial sulfinylamine reagents, to deliver alkyl sulfinamide products. The method is operationally simple and scalable, exhibits broad functional group tolerance, and is translatable to continuous-flow synthesis. Furthermore, it facilitates late-stage diversification of complex molecules, highlighting its potential utility in medicinal chemistry applications. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.orglett.5c03100