A convenient transformation of phenols into the corresponding aryl fluorosulfates is presented: the first protocol to completely circumvent direct handling of gaseous sulfuryl fluoride (SO2F2). The proposed method employs 1,1′-sulfonyldiimidazole as a precursor to generate near-stoichiometric amounts of SO2F2 gas using a two-chamber reactor. With NMR studies, it was shown that this ex situ gas evolution is extremely rapid, and a variety of phenols and hydroxylated heteroarenes were fluorosulfated in good to excellent yields.

Ex Situ Generation of Sulfuryl Fluoride for the Synthesis of Aryl Fluorosulfates

Cedrick Veryser‡ , Joachim Demaerel‡, Vidmantas Bieliu̅nas, Philippe Gilles, and Wim M. De Borggraeve* 

Molecular Design and Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, Box 2404, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

Org. Lett., Article ASAP

DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b02522

*E-mail: wim.deborggraeve@kuleuven.be.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.orglett.7b02522?utm_content=bufferd3ad9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

4-fluoro-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl sulfurofluoridate (compound 1) 

General procedure A was followed using 192 mg of 4-fluoro-4’-hydroxybiphenyl (98 wt%, 1.0 mmol, 1.0 eq.). The crude reaction mixture was purified by solid-phase flash column chromatography on silicagel (heptane, 100%). The title compound was obtained as a white solid (258 mg, 96%). Rf = 0.39 (heptane/ethyl acetate, 9/1). Melting point = 47 – 49 °C.

1 H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3): 7.62 (d, J = 8.5 Hz, 1H), 7.52 (dd, J = 8.1, 5.5 Hz, 1H), 7.41 (d, J = 8.5 Hz, 1H), 7.16 (t, J = 8.5 Hz, 1H). 

13C NMR (101 MHz, CDCl3): δ 163.05 (d, J = 247.9 Hz), 149.51, 141.17, 135.55 (d, J = 3.3 Hz), 129.06, 128.98, 121.42, 116.13 (d, J = 21.6 Hz).

19F NMR (376 MHz, CDCl3): δ 37.18, -114.68 (m).

 IR (neat) cm-1 : 1437, 1232, 921, 815. 

CHN: calculated for C12H8F2O3S: C 53.33%, H 2.98%, N 0.00%; found: C 53.43%, H 3.26%, N 0.00%.

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