Thermally cleavable safety-catch linkers for solid phase chemistry

Safety-catch linkers based on the sulfoxide/selenoxide syn elimination have been developed. Clean and efficient oxidation of the sulfide to the sulfoxide was achieved with the homogeneous oxidising system comprising of hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) and hydrogen peroxide. Elimination of the sulfoxide was only possible with the most activated of substrates, while the selenoxide underwent cleavage under much milder conditions.