Thiophenes as Traps for Benzyne. 3. Diaryl Sulfides and the Role of Dipolar Intermediates

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The reactions of seven thiophenes with benzyne generated from diphenyliodonium-2-carboxylate (DPIC) under a standard set of conditions led among other products to the formation of alpha- and beta-naphthyl phenyl sulfides 2a and 2b from thiophene (1a) and of 2c and 2d from 2-methylthiophene (1b). Dithienyl sulfides 4a-f were produced from the halothiophenes 1c-g. The structures of the naphthyl sulfides were proven by comparison with authentic samples of 2a-f, thus eliminating one of two possible mechanisms of formation. The remaining mechanism involves [4+2]-cycloaddition of benzyne to thiophene or to an S-phenylthiophenium ylide 10 to give the dipolar 2:1 benzyne/thiophene adduct 8 followed by ring-opening. Stevens-like rearrangements of 11, formed from 10 by proton transfer, may also explain the origin of arylated thiophenes such as 12 and 3 found in some reactions of benzynes with thiophene.