Polysulfurating reagent design for unsymmetrical polysulfide construction

From life science to material science, to pharmaceutical industry, and to food chemistry, polysulfides are vital structural scaffolds. However, there are limited synthetic methods for unsymmetrical polysulfides. Conventional strategies entail two pre-sulfurated cross-coupling substrates, R–S, with higher chances of side reactions due to the characteristic of sulfur. Herein, a library of broad-spectrum polysulfurating reagents, R–S–S–OMe, are designed and scalably synthesized, to which the R–S–S source can be directly introduced for late-stage modifications of biomolecules, natural products, and pharmaceuticals. Based on the hard and soft acids and bases principle, selective activation of sulfur-oxygen bond has been accomplished via utilizing proton and boride for efficient unsymmetrical polysulfuration. These polysulfurating reagents are highlighted with their outstanding multifunctional gram-scale transformations with various nucleophiles under mild conditions. A diversity of polysulfurated biomolecules, such as SS−(+)-δ-tocopherol, SS-sulfanilamide, SS-saccharides, SS-amino acids, and SSS-oligopeptides have been established for drug discovery and development. Synthetic methods to access unsymmetrical polysulfides are limited despite their high biological relevance. Here, the authors disclose a polysulfurating reagent affording unsymmetrical di- and tri-sulfides under mild conditions, and suitable for late-stage modification of natural products.