Sulfonimidation via ring-opening of 2-oxazolines with acidic sulfonimide nucleophiles

Abstract

Acidic sulfonimide nucleophiles including dibenzenesulfonimide, o-benzenesulfonimide, dimethanesulfonimide, and N-(methylsulfonyl)-benzenesulfonamide are discovered to open a variety of alkyl-, aryl-and heteroaryl-2-oxazoline rings to provide the sulfonimidation products in refluxing 1,4-dioxane. The electron-rich 2-oxazoline substrates worked well for the nucleophilic ring-opening reactions while no reaction took place for the electron-poor 2-oxazoline substrates.