Shining light on sulfonium salts and sulfur ylides: recent advances in alkylation under photoredox catalysis

Abstract

Organosulfur compounds, especially sulfur ylides and sulfonium salts, offer extraordinary potential in organic chemistry due to their distinctive structural properties and reactivities. In the past five years, tremendous progress of sulfur ylide and sulfonium salt chemistry has been made with the advent of photoredox catalysis. Increasing unprecedented reactivities and reactions of organosulfur compounds have been unearthed, which are distinguished from their conventional ionic reactivity. This review highlights the recent advances in alkylation procedures with sulfur ylides, sulfoxonium ylides, sulfonium salts and thianthrenium salts driven by photocatalysis—with emphases on reactions, mechanisms, and applications—aiming to provide guidance for the potential of sulfur-containing species in a wide range of reactions and to inspire further progress in organosulfur chemistry.