N-(phenylthio)-epsilon-caprolactam: a new promoter for the activation of thioglycosides.

N-(phenylthio)-epsilon-caprolactam (1) has been applied as a new promoter for the activation of thioglycosides. This proceeds by the reaction of 1 with trifluoromethansulfonic anhydride, which subsequently activates the thioglycoside for glycosidic bond formation. Notably, the reaction proceeds efficiently at room temperature and is adaptable to our reactivity-based one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis. [reaction: see text]