Metal free photoinduced C(sp3)–H thioarylation

C-H thioarylation of hydrocarbon building blocks is a highly desirable synthetic transformation attributed to its prevalence in various pharmaceuticals and organic functional materials. However, all the developments till date majorly rely on peroxide mediated transformations. Unfortunately, harsh reaction conditions of these reactions cause severe functional group intolerance. To surpass these issues, photo-induced radical coupling reactions have gained significant attention as a sustainable way out, which require either metal based photosensitizers or the use of an organophotocatalyst. Herein, we demonstrated a mild metal free approach for C(sp3)–H thioarylation using thioxanthone as a photo-catalyst. The protocol is compatible with various arenes, heteroarenes, as well as unactivated alkanes and cycloalkanes. The post-synthetic modifications of thioarylated compounds are also demonstrated through cross coupling reactions as well as functional group interconversions.