A general palladium-catalysed synthesis of aromatic and heteroaromatic thioethers

Thioethers can be efficiently prepared via palladium-catalysed cross-coupling of arene- or heteroarene thiols with arene- or heteroarene iodides. A simple, cheap and robust catalytic system is described that couples a broad range of electron-deficient as well as electron-rich substrates in high yield. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.