Metal-free tetra-n-butylammonium bromide-mediated aerobic oxidative synthesis of β-ketosulfones from styrenes

An efficient and broadly applicable protocol for the aerobic coupling of styrenes with sulfonylhydrazides has been developed that affords P-ketosulfones bearing various functional groups in moderate to excellent yields.The preliminary experimental results support the involvement of active benzyl radical species,and a radical pathway was therefore proposed for the reaction.