Direct thiolation of methoxybenzenes with thiols under metal-free conditions by iodine catalysis

A direct Thiolation of methoxybenzenes with various thiols has been developed. The protocol uses inexpensive reagents: catalytic iodine in the presence of DTBP. Importantly, no base or ligand was necessary. This method opens a new avenue to a variety of disulfides that would be more difficult to access with traditional methods.