The 3-aminomethylated imidazoheterocycles were efficiently synthesized in one-step via a four-component reaction of equimolar cheap and commercially available reactants at ambient temperature under catalyst-, oxidant-, base-free and mild conditions.

A highly mono-selective ortho-methylthiolation of benzamides was achieved via Co-catalyzed coupling of benzamides with DMSO. The reaction employs an 8-aminoquinoline group as the bidentate directing group and DMSO as the methylthiolation source. Instead of a mixture of mono- and di-alkylthio-substituted products obtained by previously reported procedures, our reaction gave the mono-methylthioethers only. Another notable feature of this newly developed protocol is that acrylamides can also be efficiently mono-methylthiolated.

A simple, practical and metal-free method has been developed for the synthesis of sulfonamides and β-arylsulfonyl enamines via the selective cleavage of C–N and C–H bonds through the iodine-catalyzed oxidation of arenesulfonyl chlorides and sodium sulfinates with tert-amines. The method uses commercially available inexpensive catalysts and oxidants, and has a wide substrate scope and operational simplicity.