One-pot cascade synthesis of dibenzothiophene-based heterobiaryls from dibenzothiophene-5-oxide

A sulfoxide directed C-H metalation/boration/B2Pin2 mediated reduction/Suzuki coupling process to synthesize 4-substituted dibenzothiophene (DBT) in one-pot from dibenzothiophene-5-oxide (DBTO) was developed. A variety of DBT-based heterobiaryls were prepared in satisfactory to good yields. A mechanism was proposed. The application of this methodology was demonstrated by synthesizing a luminescent material. A one-pot protocol to access 4-substituted dibenzothiophene (DBT) from dibenzothiophene-5-oxide (DBTO) was developed via a sulfoxide directed C-H metalation/B2Pin2 mediated reduction/Suzuki coupling cascade process.