Direct synthesis of diaryl sulfides by copper-catalyzed coupling of aryl halides with aminothiourea

An efficient and simple protocol of copper-catalyzed C-S bond formation between aryl halides and inexpensive and commercially available aminothiourea is reported. A variety of symmetrical diaryl sulfides can be synthes zed in good to excellent yields up to 94% with the advantage of avoiding foul-smelling thiols. (C) 2012 Xiang Mei Wu. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.