An internal oxidant-directing strategy enabling transition metal-free C–S bond ligation

Organic sulfur compounds have broad applications in biology, medicine and material sciences and intensive efforts have been devoted to developing mild and general C–S bond-forming methods. However, a mild, transition-metal-free, direct C–H bond functionalization method remains elusive. Here, we report the use of an internal oxidant-directing strategy to achieve this goal. The cascade reactions described here show excellent chemoselectivity and a wide substrate scope for both oxyamines and sulfenylation reagents. This study enlarges the synthesis toolbox for preparing structurally diverse sulfilimines under mild conditions.