Homologative 1,3‐Functionalization of Alkenes via an Iodomethyl Thianthrenium Reagent

Despite tremendous progress in alkene 1,2‐difunctionalization, analogous methods to generate 1,3‐patterns from alkenes remain limited. Recently, Silvi and co‐workers reported a homologative strategy to transform alkenes into 1,3‐dielectrophiles (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anov.70005 ). They introduce a novel iodomethyl thianthrenium salt as a precursor to methyl thianthrenium radical, which adds across unactivated alkenes. Substitution of the 1,3‐dielectrophiles delivers a general homologative alkene difunctionalization platform.