Alkyl aryl sulphoxides reactions

Partial photochemical decomposition of racemic alkyl aryl sulphoxides in the presence of chiral amines as sensitizers gave non-decomposed sulphoxides in optically active form with optical purity of about 3%339. The report340 on the use of cholesteric liquid crystalline reaction media to change the enantiomeric composition of racemic sulphoxides at high temperatures could not be reproduced341. 

Sulphonylthioureas, mass spectra of 158 Sulphoxides - see also Alkoxysulphoxides, Aminosulphoxides, -Anilinosulphoxides, Cyanosulphoxides, a, /i-Dihalosulphoxides, Disulphoxides, Enaminosulphoxides, Episulphoxides, Epoxysulphoxides, Halosulphoxides, Hydroxysulphoxides, /i-Iminosulphoxides, Ketosulphoxides, a-Lithiosulphoxides, /i-Oximinosulphoxides, Persulphoxides, a-Thioamidosulphoxides addition reaction of 619-623, 836-845 aliphatic - see Aliphatic sulphoxides alkenyl - see Alkenyl sulphoxides alkyl aryl - see Alkyl aryl sulphoxides /(-alkylthio(arylthio)ethyl - see /J-Alkylthio(arylthio)ethyl sulphoxides... 

The reaction of alkyllithium reagents with diaryl or alkyl aryl sulphoxides results in a displacement of the aromatic group by the alkyl group from the alkyllithium (equation 369) . Johnson and coworkers ° were the first to apply this reaction for the synthesis of optically active alkyl methyl sulphoxides. Later on. Durst and coworkers found that the aromatic group which can best carry a negative charge is the most readily displaced, and that the lowest yields of displacement were observed when methyllithium was used as a nucleophilic reagent. The results are summarized in Table 28. 

Earlier, attention was drawn to a novel application of the oxidative desulphurization reaction which occurs between sulphoxides and phosphonothioic acid esters. When 1 mol of the thio acid is allowed to remain in contact with 2 mol of a racemic methyl alkyl sulphoxide for 2 weeks at room temperature, the unreacted sulphoxide is found to be optically active, a result which represents asymmetric deoxygenation of the sulphoxide. The chemical course of the reaction is consistent with Scheme 31. Since the appearance of the initial results, corrections have been made to the configurations of the phosphorus-containing substrates, and hence the stereochemical details and mechanistic arguments require reappraisal neverthless, the fact remains that (-t-)-sulphoxides are obtained by the use of the ( S)-(-)-acids, R (R O)P(S)OH , a feature which can be used to determine the chirality of other like acids. Dialkyl and alkyl aryl sulphoxides are also known to form diastereoisomeric complexes with (5)-(-)-/er butylphenylphosphinothioic acid, distinguishable by their NMR spectra, and through such complexation it is possible to assess the enantiomeric composition of the sulphoxide " ... 

Oxidation of either alkyl or aryl sulphoxides to sulphones in 65-90% yields may be accomplished by treatment with a nitronium salt15. In the case of aryl sulphoxides no nitration is observed (which is in contrast to the results of nitric acid oxidation). The reaction was shown to proceed through intermediate nitratosulphonium and nitritosulph-oxonium ions, as depicted in equation (7), which were studied by nmr spectroscopy. 

Arylsulphonyl radicals 879 Arylthiomethyl sulphoxides, reactions of 331 / -Arylthiovinyl sulphoxides, synthesis of 345 Aryl unsaturated alkyl sulphones, mass spectra of 137-143... 

Water insoluble tetrabutylammonium metaperiodate, which can be prepared from sodium metaperiodate and tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulphate in aqueous solution, was found to be a useful reagent for the selective oxidation of sulphides in organic solvents . The reaction was generally carried out in boiling chloroform and gave dialkyl, alkyl aryl and diaryl sulphoxides in yields which are comparable with those reported for sodium metaperiodate in aqueous methanol solution (Table 4). In the case of diaryl sulphoxides, the yields decrease with prolonged reaction time. 

Peroxybenzoic acid readily oxidizes aryl and alkyl sulphoxides in acetone, methylene chloride or chloroform solutions, to the sulphone in high yield . The reaction is second order and acid catalysed as is the reaction with peracetic acid . The rate of oxidation is about five times faster than when peracetic acid is used. Other work considering the oxidation of sulphoxides with peracids gathered kinetic evidence and showed that the reaction was indeed second order and that the reaction involved nucleophilic attack by the sulphoxide sulphur atom on the peracid moiety. A further study by the same authors showed that with benzyl and phenyl alkyl sulphoxides the rate of reaction was very sensitive to the inductive effect of the alkyl group. Support for the nucleophilic attack by the sulphur atom on the peracid in acidic solution was forthcoming from other sources . ... 

It is interesting to note that the oxidation of sulphoxides by peracids is faster in alkaline than in acidic solution. This is in contrast to the oxidation of sulphides and amines with the same reagents " . The oxidation rate of ortho-substituted aryl alkyl sulphoxides with aromatic peracids is less than the corresponding meta- and para-substituted species due to steric hindrance of the incoming peracid anion nucleophiles . Steric bulk in the alkyl group also has some effect . Such hindrance is not nearly so important in the oxidation reaction carried out under acidic conditions . 

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