Diaryl sulphoxides reactions

Chiral alcohols have also been used in an asymmetric synthesis of sulphoxides based on halogenation of sulphides. Johnson and coworkers have found319 that the reaction of benzyl p-tolyl sulphide with JV-chlorobenzotriazole (NCBT) followed by addition of (—) menthol and silver tetrafluoroborate afforded diastereoisomeric menthoxysulphonium salts 267 which, upon recrystallization and hydrolysis, gave benzyl p-tolyl sulphoxide with 87% optical purity (equation 145). More recently, Oae and coworkers reported320 that optically active diaryl sulphoxides (e.e. up to 20%) were formed either by hydrolysis or thermolysis of the corresponding diaryl menthoxysulphonium salts prepared in situ from diaryl sulphides using ( —) menthol and t-butyl hypochlorite. 

Although dichloroborane has been successfully used to reduce dialkyl sulphoxides, it was less useful for the reduction of diaryl sulphoxides and recent work26 has found that fully substituted bromoboranes can fill this gap. Three reagents were introduced, viz. bromodimethylborane, 9-bromo-9-borabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane (9-BBN-Br) and tribromo-borane, the reactions being shown in equation (5) ... 

Oxidative chlorination of diaryl sulphoxides with chlorine is generally much more useful than for alkyl-containing substrates. The sulphone is obtained cleanly, with no (or little) halogenation94 The rate of reaction is first-order with respect to both the sulphoxide and chlorine and has an order of minus one with respect to chloride ion. This is consistent with the mechanism given in equation (29). 

In aqueous pyridine solution, most diaryl sulphoxides may be oxidized to the corresponding sulphones with (dichloroiodo)benzene in reasonable yields103. The reaction involves nucleophilic attack by the sulphoxide on the electrophilic chlorine-containing species, yielding an intermediate chlorosulphonium ion which then reacts with water producing the sulphone. If the sulphoxide is optically active, then an optically active sulphone is produced in excellent optical yield when the reaction is carried out in oxygen-18 labelled water104, as indicated in equation (33). 

Photolysis191 and flash vacuum pyrolysis192 of diaryl sulphoxides both lead to the formation of thiosulphonates as shown in equation (73). This reaction presumably occurs by initial S—C bond scission followed by combination of two arylsulphinyl radicals as depicted in equation (74). 

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. 

Electron-donating groups in the para position of the perbenzoic acid tend to decrease the rate of reaction . The reverse seems to be true when these groups are present in a 4,4 -disubstituted diaryl sulphoxide. The effect of ring size on the oxidation of cyclic sulphoxides is apparently very small in dioxane-water solution under either acidic or basic conditions . This suggests that no major hybridisation change occurs for the sulphur atom in going to the transition state. 

The anodic oxidation reaction of sulphoxides was not much studied, and just a few reports are available so far. The conversion into the corresponding sulphones of some phenyl alkyl and diaryl sulphoxides (oxidation potential for 86 + 2.07 V vs. SCE in acetonitrile/NaC104 electrolyte, Pt anode) has been reported. Similarly, diphenyl suiphoxide was long known to be transformed in a quantitative yield into the sulphone (Pt anode, solvent glacial acetic acid). Additional examples of the oxidation of a suiphoxide function attached to aryl groups are available . 

Reaction of hydrazoic acid with the monoaryl sulphoxides (345) affords benzothiazine oxides (346) and benzothiadiazepine oxides (347), and the same reagent converts the diaryl sulphoxides (348) into the benzothiadiazine oxides (349), which undergo a base-catalysed rearrangement to (350), cf. (228) - (229a). JV-5-Alkylation of the latter occurs on treatment with sodamide and alkyl halides, and reduction of the lactam moiety is brought about by LiAlH4. ... 

Olah and coworkers56 found that treatment of dialkyl, arylalkyl and diaryl sulphides with nitronium hexafluorophosphate (or tetrafluoroborate) 32 at —78° in methylene chloride resulted in the formation of sulphoxides in moderate to high yields (Table 3). In the oxidation of diphenyl sulphide which affords diphenyl sulphoxide in 95% yield, small amounts of the ring nitration products (o- and p-nitrophenyl phenyl sulphides) were formed. However, diphenyl sulphone and nitrophenyl phenyl sulphoxide were not detected among the reaction products. 

A high yield synthesis involving formal oxidation of a sulphoxide to a sulphoximine has been reported183 using O-mesitylenesulphonyl hydroxylamine (NH2OMes) (equation 67). The reaction is successful for a wide range of sulphoxides including dialkyl, diaryl and cyclic species. 

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. 

Sulphoxides and sulphoximines are reduced to thioethers by similar reaction sequences [3, 4], In most cases, the yields of the thioethers are higher (>70%) from the diaryl compounds, than from dialkyl or aryl alkyl derivatives but, when the reductions are conducted in an excess of chloroform, the yields of the thioethers are diminished [3], This observation suggests that the thioethers are reacting with dichlorocarbene and that the dialkyl and aryl alkyl compounds are more susceptible than the diaryl derivatives (Table 11.20). 

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