A general alkene aminoarylation enabled by N-centered radical reactivity of sulfinamides

We disclose an intermolecular 1,2-aminoarylation of alkenes using aryl sulfinamide reagents as bifunctional amine and arene donors. This reaction features excellent regio- and diastereoselectivity on a variety of activated and unactivated substrates. Using a weakly oxidizing photoredox catalyst, a sulfinamidyl radical is generated under mild conditions and adds to an alkene to form a new C–N bond. A desulfinylative Smiles-Truce rearrangement follows to form a new C–C bond. In this manner, biologically active arylethylamines and valuable building blocks can be rapidly assembled from abundant alkene feedstocks. Additionally, we demonstrate that chiral information from the sulfinamide can be transferred via rearrangement to a new carbon stereocenter in the product, thus advancing development of traceless asymmetric alkene difunctionalization methodologies.