Rhodium-catalyzed aerobic N-alkylation of sulfonamides with alcohols

By using the famous Wilkinson's catalyst, N-alkylation of sulfonamides can be easily realized under mild aerobic conditions by using alcohols as the alkylating reagent, giving monoalkylated sulfonamides in high yields and selectivities with water produced as the only byproduct. This advantageous aerobic method is potentially general in substrate scope that it can also be applied to other amides, amines and alcohols. (C) 2011 Qing Xu. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.