Manganese-catalyzed N-alkylation of sulfonamides using alcohols

An efficient manganese-catalyzed N-alkylation of sulfonamides has been developed. This borrowing hydrogen approach employs a well-defined and bench-stable Mn(I) PNP pincer precatalyst, allowing benzylic and simple primary aliphatic alcohols to be employed as alkylating agents. A diverse range of aryl and alkyl sulfonamides undergoes mono-N-alkylation in excellent isolated yields (32 examples, 85% average yield)