A highly efficient and widely functional-group-tolerant catalyst system for copper(I)-catalyzed S-arylation of thiols with aryl halides

A mild, general, and efficient copper-catalyzed system for C–S bond formation with high chemoselectivity and wide functional group tolerance is developed. With CuBr as catalyst and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-8-hydroxy-quinoline as ligand, the S-arylation of thiols with aryl halides performed well, the activated aryl iodides could take place even at room temperature, and the activated aryl bromides and chlorides give the corresponding products with good to excellent yields as well.