Electro-oxidation induced O–S cross-coupling of quinoxalinones with sodium sulfinates for synthesizing 2-sulfonyloxylated quinoxalines

Abstract

The functionalization of quinoxalinones is synthetically and biologically appealing, however, C2 functionalized quinoxalinones is not reported <i>via</i> environmentally friendly approach. Herein, we disclosed C2-O sulfonylation of quinoxalinones <i>via</i> our developed electrochemical oxidative O-S coupling strategy for synthesizing 2-sulfonyloxylated quinoxalines. Applying this protocol, quinoxalin-ones and sodium sulfinates as the starting materials, a wide range of 2-sulfonyloxyl quinoxaline derivatives were obtained in moderate to good yields with good functional-group tolerance under mild conditions without additional oxidants. The utility of this methodology and the sulfonyloxyl handles was demonstrated trough gram-scale preparation and the synthesis of 2-substituted quinoxaline-based bioactive molecules, respectively.