Combination of microwave reactions with fluorous separations in the palladium-catalyzed synthesis of aryl sulfides.

Coupling of microwave reactions with fluorous separations can dramatically increase the efficiency of high-speed synthesis. Described in this paper is a fluorous synthesis of aryl sulfides by palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl perfluoroalkylsulfonates (C8F17O2SOAr) with thiols (RSH) under microwave irradiation. Fluorous solid-phase extractions (F-SPE) are employed for the purification of reaction mixtures. No fluorous solvents are involved in reaction and separation processes. The fluorous synthesis is further extended to the multi-step synthesis of substituted hydantoin and amide scaffolds.