# Electrochemical desulfurative borylation of thiols, disulfides, thioethers and thioacetals

## TL;DR

A new electrochemical method converts sulfur-containing compounds into useful boronic esters, including drug-like molecules.

## Contribution

A scalable electrochemical method for desulfurative borylation using sulfur-rich compounds as precursors.

## Key findings

- Thiols, disulfides, thioethers, and thioacetals can be directly converted into alkylboronic esters.
- The electrochemical process is simple, user-friendly, and scalable to gram quantities.
- Late-stage functionalization of pharmaceutical scaffolds and natural products is achievable.

## Abstract

Low-valent sulfur-containing compounds are abundant among natural and synthetic products but remain underutilized as starting materials in desulfurative transformations. Herein, we present thiols, disulfides, thioethers, and thioacetals as precursors in a direct desulfurative electrochemical process for the formation of alkylboronic esters, including late-stage functionalization of pharmaceutically relevant scaffolds and natural products. The electrochemical protocol is simple, user-friendly and scalable, successfully producing gram quantities of borylated product.

Low-valent sulfur-containing compounds are abundant among natural and synthetic products but remain underutilized as starting materials in desulfurative transformations. Here, the authors present thiols, disulfides, thioethers, and thioacetals as precursors in a direct desulfurative electrochemical process for the formation of alkylboronic esters.