Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Avoiding over-oxidation of mercaptans/sulfides

arsenic - 26-9-2005 at 23:23

how can one avoid over-oxidation while using H2O2 as oxidant in oxidation reactions,(e.g oxidation of sulfides).

for instance:


sulfide ------------> sufoxide


sulfide ------------> sulfone over-oxidation


reaction conditions: room tem. acetonitrile as solvent,catalyst,H2O2(30%)

E.b.C: title

[Edited on 27-9-2005 by chemoleo]

Overoxidation

Kinetic - 27-9-2005 at 02:11

I'll put as much effort into my post as you did in yours.

Use 1 equivalent of oxidant, or not much more. There is a good procedure for the enantioselective oxidation of thioethers to sulfoxides in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 43, 4225-4228 (2004). I don't see why a similar protocol can't be used to give racemic sulfoxides, without the addition of the chiral catalyst.

Sandmeyer - 27-9-2005 at 06:43

There are couple of procedures at orgsyn.org, scroll down to the bottom 3 links in the link that follows and links within them as well references within the references might interest you: http://www.orgsyn.org/orgsyn/RxnTypes/section.asp?section=18...

Shulgin did this too in pihkal once, see, #173 TOMSO entry: http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal173....

Isn't it about time to turn these 4-thioethers of 2ct/ALEPH pattern to corresponding sulfones and sulfoxides? Would be an interesting experiment.