One‐Pot Synthesis of Dithioacetals and Diselenoacetals: An Indium‐Catalyzed Reductive Insertion into Disulfides and Diselenides with Orthoesters as a Methylene Source

The reducing system (a black hammer) composed of an indium(III) catalyst and a hydrosilane could directly and reductively drive an orthoester (a conical wedge) that functions as a masked methylene moiety into the S−S bonds of diaryl or dialkyl disulfide derivatives, providing a variety of dithioacetal derivatives. It was demonstrated that this reducing system could also be effectively adapted to the diselenoacetalization of diaryl or dialkyl diselenides. More information can be found in the Full Paper by Norio Sakai et al.