We describe the development of a nickel-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of tertiary benzylic and allylic sulfones with arylboroxines. A variety of tertiary sulfones, which can easily be prepared via a deprotonation-alkylation route, were reacted to afford symmetric and unsymmetric quaternary products in good yields. We highlight the use of either BrettPhos or Doyle's phosphines as effective ligands for these challenging desulfonative coupling reactions. The utility of this methodology was demonstrated in the concise synthesis of a vitamin D receptor modulator analogue.

α-Fluoromethylarenes are common substructures in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, with the introduction of fluorine often resulting in improved biological activity and stability. Despite recent progress, synthetic routes to α-fluorinated diarylmethanes are still rare. Herein we describe the Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of α-fluorinated benzylic triflones with arylboronic acids affording structurally diverse α-fluorinated diarylmethanes. The ease of synthesis of fluorinated triflones as the key starting materials enables powerful late-stage transformations of known biologically active compounds into fluorinated analogs.

A scandium-triflate-catalyzed arylative desulfonation of diarylmethyl phenyl sulfones with arenes and heteroarenes was established. A variety of both sulfone and arene substrates were reacted to afford symmetric and nonsymmetric triarylmethanes in good yields. Further transformations of the resulting triarylmethanes and application to the concise synthesis of a bactericidal agent analogue were also demonstrated.

Herein, we report the transition-metal free, pyridine-catalyzed desulfonative borylation of benzyl sulfones with bis(pinacolato)diboron (B2pin2).

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