Synthesis of 2-aminobenzothiazoles via copper(I)-catalyzed cross-coupling with part-per-million catalyst loadings

Abstract

An efficient protocol has been developed for the preparation of 2-aminobenzothiazoles via a copper(I)-catalyzed tandem reaction of 2-iodoanilines with isothiocyanates at very low catalyst loadings [typically 50ppm of copper(I) iodide (CuI)]. A variety of 2-iodoanilines could be cross-coupled with isothiocyanates, affording 2-aminobenzothiazoles in moderate to good yields (49-93%) under the given conditions. The turnover number (TON) of this reaction reaches 67,000 and the reaction could be scaled up, at least, to the gram-scale. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.