biostudies-literatureUnknown12(2)Xu BA novel copper-catalyzed thioetherification reaction has been developed to afford benzyl thioethers in moderate to excellent yields. Under the mild and easy-to-operate conditions, a variety of thioethers are efficiently prepared from readily available benzyl alcohols (primary, secondary, and tertiary) and thiols in the presence of Cu(OTf)₂ as the Lewis acid catalysis. This C-S bond formation protocol furnishes exceptional chemoselectivity, and the preliminary mechanism studies show that the reaction should proceed through a Lewis-acid-mediated S_N1-type nucleophilic attack of the carbocations formed <i>in situ</i>.RSC advances692-697https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC8697992biostudies-literatureBenzyl thioether formation merging copper catalysis.PMC8697992Xu LXie TYe XYXu BLin YYe YfalseBenzyl thioether formation merging copper catalysis.A novel copper-catalyzed thioetherification reaction has been developed to afford benzyl thioethers in moderate to excellent yields. Under the mild and easy-to-operate conditions, a variety of thioethers are efficiently prepared from readily available benzyl alcohols (primary, secondary, and tertiary) and thiols in the presence of Cu(OTf)₂ as the Lewis acid catalysis. This C-S bond formation protocol furnishes exceptional chemoselectivity, and the preliminary mechanism studies show that the reaction should proceed through a Lewis-acid-mediated S_N1-type nucleophilic attack of the carbocations formed <i>in situ</i>.2021-01-01T00:00:00Z2021 Dec2025-04-04T09:00:29.972Z2025-04-04T09:00:29.972ZS-EPMC86979923542512410.1039/d1ra08015f