Recent Progress in Aerobic Oxidative C-S Bond Formation

Aerobic oxidative C–S bond formation has emerged as a sustainable and atom-economical approach for the synthesis of sulfur-containing molecules. This review summarizes advances since 2014, focusing on transformations that utilize molecular oxygen as a key oxidant. The discussion is organized into three categories: aerobic oxidative sulfonylation, aerobic oxidative sulfenylation, and other aerobic oxidative C–S bond formation. These processes proceed through diverse pathways, including radical-mediated transformations, electrophilic sulfenylation, and transition-metal-catalyzed oxidative coupling. Various strategies, such as transition metal catalysis, iodine catalysis, organocatalysis, photocatalysis, and ball milling are discussed. The versatility of sulfur sources, such as sulfonyl hydrazides, thiols, thiocyanates, and elemental sulfur, further expands the synthetic utility of these methods, while current limitations and future perspectives are briefly addressed.