Our investigation started with the model reaction of benzoyl sulfoxonium ylide
1a, P
4S
10 2, and EtOH
3a to optimize reaction conditions at room temperature in air. When the model reaction was conducted in EtOH by using of CuI (10 mol%) as catalyst, the desired product
4aa was obtained in 43% yield (
Table 1, entry 1). Further screening of other catalysts such as CuCl
2, FeCl
3, and I
2 found that the reaction efficiency was not obviously improved (
Table 1, entries 2–4). The addition of bases such as DBU and Cs
2CO
3 did also not promote this reaction (
Table 1, entries 5 and 6). To our delight, the yield of
4aa would be increased to 57% in the absence of any additive (
Table 1, entry 7). Next, the solvent effect was further investigated. When the mixture of EtOH with other organic solvents (1/4) such as EtOH/THF, EtOH/DCE, EtOH/CH
2Cl
2, EtOH/EtOAc, EtOH/CH
3CN, EtOH/1, 4-dioxane, EtOH/CHCl
3, or EtOH/acetone were employed in this reaction system, the reaction generally afforded the product
4aa in good yield (
Table 1, entries 8–15). Only a low yield was observed when the model reaction was carried out in the mixture solvent of EtOH/DMF, EtOH/DMSO or EtOH/H
2O (
Table 1, entries 16–18). Among a variety of reaction solvents studied above, the mixture of EtOH/CH
2Cl
2 was found to be superior reaction medium, affording the product
4aa in 78% yield (
Table 1, entry 10). Then, the ratio of EtOH/CH
2Cl
2 was also further investigated (
Table 1, entries 19–23), and the result showed that the highest yield of 88% was obtained when EtOH/CH
2Cl
2 (1/9) was used as reaction solvent (
Table 1, entry 22). When the reaction temperature was increased to 60 ℃, the desired product
4aa was obtained in only a 63% yield (
Table 1, entry 24). Product
4aa could be isolated in 71% yield when the model reaction was carried out under N
2 (
Table 1, entry 25).