Carbon thiolation

A well-known example of a complex catalytic reaction that takes place on the surface of carbon is the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide [329,330], When water is present on the carbon surface and the surface has the basic pH required for dissociation of H2S, oxidation of the HS ions by active oxygen occurs either to elemental sulfur or sulfuric acid. The latter is formed when the reaction takes place in very small pores, where only sulfur radicals very susceptible for further oxidation to SO3 are formed. Catalytic oxidation also occurs in the case of methyl mercaptan adsorption [331], where on basic carbon, thiolate ions formed as a result of dissociation are further oxidized to dimethyldisulfide strongly adsorbed in the pore system. In the case of desulfurization, inorganic constituents of carbon such as iron and calcium also play a crucial role. Those elements, present even in small amounts, contribute significantly to the oxidation reactions as catalysts [332,333],... 

Iron Sulfur Compounds. Many molecular compounds (18—20) are known in which iron is tetrahedraHy coordinated by a combination of thiolate and sulfide donors. Of the 10 or more stmcturaHy characterized classes of Fe—S compounds, the four shown in Figure 1 are known to occur in proteins. The mononuclear iron site REPLACE occurs in the one-iron bacterial electron-transfer protein mbredoxin. The [2Fe—2S] (10) and [4Fe—4S] (12) cubane stmctures are found in the 2-, 4-, and 8-iron ferredoxins, which are also electron-transfer proteins. The [3Fe—4S] voided cubane stmcture (11) has been found in some ferredoxins and in the inactive form of aconitase, the enzyme which catalyzes the stereospecific hydration—rehydration of citrate to isocitrate in the Krebs cycle. In addition, enzymes are known that contain either other types of iron sulfur clusters or iron sulfur clusters that include other metals. Examples include nitrogenase, which reduces N2 to NH at a MoFe Sg homocitrate cluster carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, which assembles acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) at a FeNiS site and hydrogenases, which catalyze the reversible reduction of protons to hydrogen gas. 

Thiirane 1-oxide undergoes acid-catalyzed ring opening by ethanethiol to give ethyl 2-ethylthioethyl disulfide. Treatment of thiirane 1,1-dioxide with thiolate anions, sodium sulfide or thiourea gives /3-mercaptosulfinic acid derivatives (75S55). Thiiranium ions are attacked at carbon by most sulfur nucleophiles (79ACR282), but see Section 5.06.3.4.3 for exceptions. 

Treatment of thiiranes with lithium aluminum hydride gives a thiolate ion formed by attack of hydride ion on the least hindered carbon atoms (76RCR25), The mechanism is 5n2, inversion occurring at the site of attack. Polymerization initiated by the thiolate ion is a side reaction and may even be the predominant reaction, e.g. with 2-phenoxymethylthiirane. Use of THF instead of ether as solvent is said to favor polymerization. Tetrahydroborates do not reduce the thiirane ring under mild conditions and can be used to reduce other functional groups in the presence of the episulfide. Sodium in ammonia reduces norbornene episulfide to the exo thiol. 

The final step in the /3-oxidation cycle is the cleavage of the /3-ketoacyI-CoA. This reaction, catalyzed by thiolase (also known as j8-ketothiolase), involves the attack of a cysteine thiolate from the enzyme on the /3-carbonyI carbon, followed by cleavage to give the etiolate of acetyl-CoA and an enzyme-thioester intermediate (Figure 24.17). Subsequent attack by the thiol group of a second CoA and departure of the cysteine thiolate yields a new (shorter) acyl-CoA. If the reaction in Figure 24.17 is read in reverse, it is easy to see that it is a Claisen condensation—an attack of the etiolate anion of acetyl-CoA on a thioester. Despite the formation of a second thioester, this reaction has a very favorable A).q, and it drives the three previous reactions of /3-oxidation. 

FIGURE 24.17 The mechanism of the thiolase reaction. Attack by an enzyme cysteine thiolate group at the /3-carbonyl carbon produces a tetrahedral intermediate, which decomposes with departure of acetyl-CoA, leaving an enzyme thioester intermediate. Attack by the thiol group of a second CoA yields a new (shortened) acyl-CoA. 

Similarly, when aziridines 16 were opened with thiolates, exclusive addition at the carbon proximal to the carbonyl was observed (Scheme 12.21). The best results were obtained when DMF was used as the solvent. 

They demonstrated that electron-deficient R groups and electron-rich R substituents at S accelerated the reductive elimination. They proposed 123 (Lj = DPPE, R = Ph, R = Ar) as a transition state, where R acts as an electrophile and thiolate as a nucleophile. The Hammet plot for the reductive elimination showed that the resonance effect of the substituent in R determines the inductive effect of the R group, and the effect in SR showed an acceptable linear relationship with the standard o-values. The relative rate for sulfide elimination as a function of the hybrid valence configuration of the carbon center bonded to palladium followed the trend sp > sp spl... 

Various phases have been described55 for thiolates adsorbed at Au(lll) surfaces starting from ( /3x /3) i 30° at low coverage and including the 3 x 2 /3, 3x4 and p x 3. All of these are commensurate with the Au(lll) surface. In sharp contrast, with Ag(lll) an incommensurate ( /7x /7) i 19.1° structure forms for carbon chains longer than 2. The deviation from commensurate behaviour is thought to be due to repulsive interactions between the close-packed alkyl chains and the reduction in strength of the Ag-Ag bonds to... 

Carbon-13 NMR has been used in the study of thiolate and disub-stituted tetrazolium derivatives.217-219 The chemical shifts of both the substituent and ring carbons show strong sensitivity to substitutents as shown in Table 9 for 130—135.219 Tetrazolium salts have also been studied by nitrogen-15 NMR (Table 10).220 221... 

The initial step of the adsorption of cyclic sulfides on a Mo(100) surface is also the formation of adsorbed thiolate groups.395-397 Adsorbed alkyl thiolates decompose to adsorbed sulfur, carbon, and hydrogen on the clean Mo surface, but once the surface is deactivated by adsorbed sulfur, alkanes and alkenes evolve from the surface. Tetrahydrothiophene (34) and trimethylene sulfide decompose on Mo(110) to alkanes and alkenes by way of a common intermediate, which is proposed to be a surface thiolate (33). The thiolate undergoes hydrogenation or dehydrogenation, depending on the surface hydrogen concentration (Scheme 4.115).398 399... 

Bowman has surveyed the reactions of cx-substituted aliphatic nitro compounds with nucleophiles, which undergo either S l substitution or polar reaction (Scheme 5.16).118 The reactions between a wide variety of nucleophiles and BrCH2N02 are shown in Scheme 5.17.119a b All the thiolates, PhS02 and I attack Br to liberate the anion of nitromethane. The hard nucleophiles, MeO , OH, and BH4 attack the hard H+ electrophilic center. Phosphorous nucleophiles attackthe oxygen electrophilic center, and only Me2S attacks the carbon electrophilic center. 

During the cross-couplings to form C—N, C—O, C—S, and C—P bonds, the arylpalladium halide complexes are converted to arylpalladium amide, alkoxide, thiolate, and phosphide complexes. Examples of each type of complex have now been isolated, and the reductive elimination of the organic products has been studied. Although the reductive elimination to form carbon-hydrogen and carbon-carbon bonds is common, reductive elimination to form carbon-heteroatom bonds has been studied only recently. This reductive elimination chemistry has been reviewed.23... 

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