Arylations of nitro(pentafluorosulfanyl)benzenes using a palladium catalyst

Zhang et al. have reported the arylations of nitro(pentafluorosulfanyl)benzenes using a palladium catalyst. In their report,　arylations at the ortho-position toward the nitro group of 3-nitrophenylsulfur pentafluoride preferentially proceed to afford 1,3,4-adducts, while in a case using 4-nitrophenylsulfur pentafluoride, compounds diarylated at both ortho-positions toward the nitro group are given as a main product. In this reaction, when aryl bromides with an electron-donating group are employed, 1,5-diaryl substituted compounds are obtained in good yields, while using aryl bromides with electron-withdrawing groups results in 1-aryl substituted compounds being moderately formed.
Compounds containing the pentafluorosulfanyl group have been attracting attention as potent building blocks in the fields of pharmaceuticals. Thus, this reaction is a useful synthetic procedure for chemical modifications of them.