Iron-catalyzed desulfinylative C-C cross-coupling reactions of sulfonyl chlorides with grignard reagents.

Carbon–carbon cross-coupling reactions are very important in the areas of material science and medicinal chemistry. Most current methods require expensive transition-metal catalysts (for example, based on Cu, Pd, Co, Ni, Pt, Ru, and Rh) and ligands (for example, phosphines). Early reports by Kharasch and Reinmuth in 1954 and then by Tamura and Kochi in 1971 suggested that inexpensive Grignard reagents and alkyl halides can be coupled in the presence of iron catalysts [Scheme 1, Equation (1)].