Boron trichloride as an efficient and selective agent for deprotection of tert-butyl aryl sulfonamides

A fast, mild and selective method for deprotection of tert-butyl aryl sulfonamides utilizing BCl3 as deprotection reagent has been developed. A variety of tert-butyl aryl sulfonamides used under these conditions gave the corresponding primary sulfonamides in high yields. The method does not cleave methoxy groups and prevents incorporation of tert-butyl groups onto electron-rich aromatic rings.