Thioimides: new reagents for effective synthesis of thiolesters from carboxylic acids.

Thioimides and carboxylic acids are used as the precursors for the convenient synthesis of thiolesters in the phosphine mediated process. Cyclic and acyclic thioimides show equal efficiency, furnishing the desired thiolesters in good to excellent yields. The general, highly efficient transformation tolerates various functional groups and the resulting thiolesters are obtained in high purity after a simple separation. The reaction scope has been demonstrated on the preparation of several highly functionalized target molecules.