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Reactions >> Protecting Groups >> Stability

p-Toluenesulfonamides

Ts-NR2, , Tosylamides

T. W. Green, P. G. M. Wuts,
Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis,
Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1999, 604-607, 744-747.

 

Stability

H2O: pH < 1, 100°C pH = 1, RT pH = 4, RT pH = 9, RT pH = 12, RT pH > 12, 100°C
Bases: LDA NEt3, Py t-BuOK Others: DCC SOCl2
Nucleophiles: RLi RMgX RCuLi Enolates NH3, RNH2 NaOCH3
Electrophiles: RCOCl RCHO CH3I Others: :CCl2 Bu3SnH
Reduction: H2 / Ni H2 / Rh Zn / HCl Na / NH3 LiAlH4 NaBH4
Oxidation: KMnO4 OsO4 CrO3 / Py RCOOOH I2, Br2, Cl2 MnO2 / CH2Cl2

Protection


A facile and efficient indium-catalyzed sulfonylation of amines allows the synthesis of a wide range of sulfonamides in excellent yields. The method showed a generality for substrates including less nucleophilic and sterically hindered anilines, and it is also applicable for preparing sulfonic esters from sulfonyl chlorides and alcohols.
J. Yan, J. Li, D. Cheng, Synlett, 2007, 2442-2444.


An easy and handy synthesis of sulfonamides directly from sulfonic acids or its sodium salts is performed under microwave irradiation, has shown a good functional group tolerance, and is high yielding.
L. De Luca, G. Giacomelli, J. Org. Chem., 2008, 73, 3967-3969.


A mild and efficient reaction of amine derived sulfonate salts in the presence of cyanuric chloride, triethylamine as base, and anhydrous acetonitrile as solvent at room temperature gives the corresponding sulfonamides in good to excellent yields.
M. N. S. Rad, A. Khalafi-Nezhad, Z. Asrari, S. Behrouz, Z. Amini, M. Behrouz, Synthesis, 2009, 3983-3988.


Other Syntheses of Tos-Protected Amino Groups


A borrowing hydrogen approach using a well-defined and bench-stable Mn(I) PNP pincer precatalyst enables an efficient manganese-catalyzed N-alkylation of sulfonamides with benzylic and simple primary aliphatic alcohols as alkylating agents. A diverse range of aryl and alkyl sulfonamides undergoes mono-N-alkylation in excellent yields.
B. G. Reed-Berendt, L. C. Morrill, J. Org. Chem., 2019, 84, 3715-3724.


A biaryl phosphine ligand, t-BuXPhos and K3PO4 in tert-amyl alcohol was found to be the optimal base-solvent combination for a Pd-catalyzed sulfonamidation of aryl nonafluorobutanesulfonates. The reaction conditions were tolerant of various functional groups. The only identified limitation of this methodology is the inability of 2,6-disubstituted aryl nonaflates to efficiently participate in the reaction.
S. Shekhar, T. B. Dunn, B. J. Kotecki, D. K. Montavon, S. C. Cullen, J. Org. Chem., 2011, 76, 4552-4553.


A mild and efficient method for the synthesis of N-arylsulfonamides in the presence of CuCl as catalyst proceeds readily at room temperature in an open flask using a variety of sulfonyl azides and boronic acids without any base, ligand, or additive.
S.-Y. Moon, J. Nam, K. Rathwell, W.-S. Kim, Org. Lett., 2014, 16, 338-339.


Deprotection


Under irradiation of 407 nm LEDs using sodium formate as reductant and thiol as hydrogen atom transfer agent, a variety of (hetero)aryl chlorides, bromides, and iodides can be reduced to the corresponding (hetero)arenes. The key intermediates, aryl radicals, can be trapped by either hydrogen, phosphite, or borates. The same conditions can be used for the deprotection of sulfonamides.
S.-D. Wang, B. Yang, H. Zhang, J.-P. Qu, Y.-B. Kang, Org. Lett., 2023, 25, 816-820.


The reaction of different protected alcohols, amines and amides with lithium and a catalytic amount of naphthalene in THF at low temperature leads to their deprotection under very mild reaction conditions, the process being in many cases chemoselective.
E. Alonso, D. J. Ramón, M. Yus, Tetrahedron, 1997, 53, 14355-14368.


A low-valent titanium generated in situ from Ti(O-i-Pr)4, Me3SiCl, and Mg powder in THF reacted with a broad range of sulfonamides in a reductive bond cleaving pathway to provide the corresponding amines, hydrocarbons and thiols. The reagent could also cleave sulfonates to the corresponding alcohols.
N. Shohji, T. Kawaji, S. Okamoto, Org. Lett., 2011, 13, 2626-2629.


For chemoselective acidic hydrolysis of N-arylsulfonamides with trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, a near-stoichiometric amount of the acid was found to be sufficient to deprotect various neutral or electron-deficient N-arylsulfonamides, whereas electron-rich substrates provided sulfonyl group migration products.
T. Javorskis, E. Orentas, J. Org. Chem., 2017, 82, 13423-13439.


A convenient reductive photocleavage of sulfonamides using thioureas as organophotocatalysts tolerates a variety of substrates and occurs under mild reaction conditions in the presence of tetrabutylammonium borohydride as a reducing agent.
J. Brom, A. Maruani, L. Micouin, E. Benedetti, J. Org. Chem., 2023, 88, 5923-5935.


The reaction of different protected alcohols, amines and amides with lithium and a catalytic amount of naphthalene in THF at low temperature leads to their deprotection under very mild reaction conditions, the process being in many cases chemoselective.
E. Alonso, D. J. Ramón, M. Yus, Tetrahedron, 1997, 53, 14355-14368.


Conversion of Tos-protected Amines to other functional groups


A mild deprotection for notoriously difficult to unmask primary N-(p-toluenesulfonyl) amides occurs at low temperature by initial activation of the nitrogen with a trifluoroacetyl group, followed by reductive cleavage of the p-toluenesulfonyl group with samarium diiodide.
Z. Moussa, D. Romo, Synlett, 2006, 3294-3298.