Radical coupling of arylthiodifluoroacetic acids and ethynylbenziodoxolone (EBX) reagents to access arylthiodifluoromethylated alkynes

Abstract A practical and efficient radical coupling of easily available arylthiodifluoroacetic acids and ethynylbenziodoxolone (EBX) reagents has been reported. Under transition metal-free conditions, aryl-substituted EBXs were converted to the corresponding ArSCF2-substituted alkynes in moderate to good yields, whereas TIPS-EBX underwent silver-catalyzed decarboxylative conditions to deliver the desired coupling products. The synthetic utility of this protocol was demonstrated through the transformation of resulting product to other ArSCF2-substituted alkynes and alkenes.